Ranger Chuang Yi

"Are you a Ranger?"

Tong Hua called out tentatively to the man, cautiously taking two steps forward.

Hearing him, the man turned and noticed Tong Hua's group. His gaze was immediately drawn to the enormous Tangrowth.

"I'm Chuang Yi, the Ranger from Windring Town, and this is my partner, Pachirisu. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Chuang Yi frowned as he questioned him, raising the Capture Styler on his wrist to identify himself.

"Chipa!" The Pachirisu beside him also called out sternly to the Pokémon at Tong Hua's side.

"So you're Chuang Yi. My name's Tong Hua, and I run the Fairy Tale Ranch nearby.

These are my Pokémon, Turtwig, Minccino, and..."

Tong Hua almost blurted out Celebi's name, but caught himself in time and swallowed the words.

The two Celebi had already hidden themselves upon noticing a stranger nearby. They seemed unwilling to let anyone else know they existed.

"And this Tangrowth is wild. I followed him here."

"Tang..."

Suddenly thrust into the spotlight by Tong Hua, Tangrowth shyly covered his face with his hands, not daring to meet Chuang Yi's eyes.

"Uh... he seems a little shy around strangers. He was like that when I first saw him, too, hiding underwater and refusing to show himself."

Chuang Yi paid it no mind, his brow still furrowed.

"I see. You're a ranch owner. Sorry, I'm actually handling an important assignment involving a little girl's safety, so I had to ask."

"A little girl? Her life is at risk?

Could you tell me more?"

Now Tong Hua frowned as well, instinctively tightening his grip on his umbrella handle.

Chuang Yi didn't refuse. He explained directly, "An eight-year-old girl went missing in the forest this morning.

I followed the tracks left by her rain boots here, but the trail ended at this spot."

As he spoke, Chuang Yi pulled up a photo of the girl on his Communication Equipment.

The photo showed a little girl with a short brown bob, happily holding several Happiny.

"Her name is Meimei. According to the parents who reported her missing, she apparently ran into the forest alone to look for something.

Her parents weren't worried at first. Then the Locator Watch she was wearing suddenly lost its connection, and they rushed to report it.

We have to find Meimei as soon as possible. A child alone in the forest on a rainy day could be in danger."

As Chuang Yi finished explaining, the Tangrowth beside Tong Hua suddenly grew excited.

"Tang! Tang!"

Tangrowth dashed into the pool beneath the waterfall, extended his arm, and fished something out of a crack between the rocks.

It was a broken watch.

"This is...!"

Chuang Yi quickly took the watch and compared it with the one in the photo. It was the very same watch!

"Do you know where Meimei is?" Tong Hua couldn't help asking Tangrowth. "Is this why you brought me here?"

"Tang! Tang!"

"But why is there only a watch? Where's Meimei? I've searched this whole area already. Could she have climbed above the waterfall...?"

Tong Hua and Chuang Yi both looked up toward the top of the waterfall.

It was about twenty meters high. Once they had ruled out everything impossible, whatever remained had to be the truth, no matter how absurd it seemed.

Meimei was most likely up there.

His brow tightly furrowed, Chuang Yi quickly called someone on his communicator.

"Hitomi, I've found a new lead. The location is upstream of the waterfall in Wind-Circling Forest."

"Understood. I'll be right there," came Hitomi's brisk reply from the other end.

Looking at the steep rock face and the rushing waterfall, Tong Hua grew even more worried. "How did a little girl get somewhere that high? And with all this rain, what if she slips or..."

"Tang!"

Tangrowth suddenly wrapped a vine around Tong Hua's wrist and anxiously pointed toward a hidden, moss-covered path beside the waterfall.

It was a natural stairway that almost blended into the rock face, impossible to spot without a close look.

"You mean... we can get up from here?" Tong Hua asked in surprise.

Chuang Yi and Pachirisu quickly inspected the route, and he nodded decisively. "This path is slippery, but it's passable. It'll take time for Hitomi and the others to get here. I need to go up and take a look first."

"I'm coming too. Let us help," Tong Hua told Chuang Yi without hesitation.

"Well..." Chuang Yi hesitated. According to regulations, he wasn't supposed to involve ordinary civilians in an incident.

But with Tong Hua so determined to help, he couldn't simply turn him down.

As Captain Palmer put it, they couldn't let the public down.

"All right, then. Stay behind me, and be careful."

Tong Hua nodded eagerly, then turned to Turtwig and Minccino. "Come on up. Sit on my shoulders."

The two Pokémon obediently nodded and climbed onto Tong Hua's shoulders. With the little pair perched there, Tong Hua took a deep breath and followed Chuang Yi.

The natural steps were incredibly slippery. Every step demanded all their effort to keep their balance.

Tangrowth took the lead of his own accord, using his thick vines to secure footholds for the two men and even thoughtfully clearing away the moss.

As they climbed higher, the waterfall's roar became deafening, and spray blurred their vision.

Tong Hua's trouser legs were already soaked, and his fingers turned white from gripping the cracks in the rock.

Although he knew the two Celebi were protecting him from hiding, his body's instinctive reactions still left him helplessly frightened by the dangerous surroundings.

"Turt..."

"Chipa!"

Turtwig and Minccino felt the same way. The two Pokémon clung tightly to Tong Hua's sleeves, neither daring to look down.

It was hard to imagine how a little girl like Meimei had climbed this path...

More than ten minutes later, the two men finally reached the area above the waterfall.

There was another broad stretch of level ground here. The rain was much lighter than below, barely falling at all.

A little farther ahead lay Gale Hill, the highest scenic spot in the entire southern Almia Region and the best vantage point for looking down over Windring Town.

"I never realized Wind-Circling Forest had such a big difference in elevation... Still, the view up here isn't bad."

Having finally reached the top, Tong Hua's legs had gone

weak. If Tangrowth hadn't wrapped a vine around his waist as a safety rope, he might never have found the courage to climb up.

"Just as I thought, the footprints have reappeared. We're searching in the right direction." Beside him, Chuang Yi found another lead and began following the footprints with Pachirisu.

"So why exactly did Meimei come all the way up here?"

Tong Hua followed Chuang Yi, panting, his confusion only deepening.

Tangrowth suddenly picked up speed and plunged into a dense patch of bushes ahead.

"Tang! Tang!"

He seemed to be calling out to someone.

Tong Hua and Chuang Yi exchanged a glance and immediately followed.

After pushing through the bushes, they both froze at the sight before them...

In a small clearing beneath an enormous tree, several small wild Pokémon had gathered in a circle, chattering away. Two people sat beside them.

"Tangrowth, what took you so long to come back? Where did you run off to play?"

The wild Pokémon crowded around Tangrowth when he appeared, but all froze again when Tong Hua and Chuang Yi emerged right behind him.

"Meimei!"

"Mu Mu?"

Chuang Yi and Tong Hua spoke at the same time, calling out the two people's names.

"Huh? Junior Fellow Apprentice Tong Hua? What brings you here?"

Yes, that unmistakable green hair and the long tuft sticking up from it. Who else could it be but Mu Mu, Tong Hua's senior fellow apprentice in woodcarving!

"I was about to ask you the same thing. What are you doing here?"

Tong Hua hurried forward, staring at Mu Mu in surprise. Chuang Yi also approached to check on Meimei.

"Hitomi, I've found Meimei. I've sent you the location."

"Understood!"

Chuang Yi ended the call and finally breathed a sigh of relief. His brow gradually relaxed, and he returned to his usual easygoing manner.

"Well, who knew there was a place like this above the waterfall? I've never come here on patrol before."

Chuang Yi surveyed their surroundings.

"So could you explain exactly what's going on here?"

Tong Hua walked over to Mu Mu and asked with a puzzled expression.

Mu Mu scratched his head, the tuft of hair bobbing gently with his movements. "Explain? Explain what? Meimei and I are friends. It's my day off, so we arranged to play together."

"But Meimei's parents don't seem to know what she came out to do. Didn't you let her family know?"

"Ah, well..."

Mu Mu's tuft of hair suddenly went stiff, and an awkward look crossed his face. "About that... Meimei said she'd already told her family..."

Meimei immediately lowered her head, her little hands nervously twisting the hem of her clothes. "I-I was afraid Mom and Dad wouldn't let me come out to play..."

Chuang Yi gave a helpless smile. "So you snuck out, then? Luckily, you didn't run into any danger. You mustn't do this again."

"I'm sorry..." Meimei lowered her head even farther.

That brought the incident to an end. It had all been a misunderstanding. Meimei hadn't been in any danger, which was a blessing amid the misfortune.

"So... what are you playing here?" Tong Hua sat down between Mu Mu and Meimei and asked gently.

Turtwig and Minccino also climbed down from Tong Hua and joined Chuang Yi's Pachirisu in chatting with the wild Pokémon.

"What can we do on a rainy day? We're waiting for the rain to stop. Once it does, we can go to Gale Hill to paint."

As Mu Mu spoke, he suddenly stood and walked toward the enormous tree behind him.

Only then did Tong Hua notice that the huge tree actually had doors and windows. There was even a fenced vegetable patch beside it.

This was clearly an Ecological Treehouse.