Seeing a thief was nothing unusual. After all, petty theft still happened these days, and even robberies were not unheard of. It was just that in the Pokémon world, this was a very dangerous line of work, because the vast majority of people had Pokémon of their own. No one knew whether they might run into someone tough. Imagine trying to get a little spending money off someone, only for an Onix or a Machamp to suddenly pop out beside them. That would be utterly hopeless. So there were still very few people who did this sort of thing in the Pokémon world. The risks were simply too great, and no one knew what might happen.
Of course, since victims carried Pokémon, sometimes people also brought Pokémon along to commit crimes. However, those situations often ended up turning into Pokémon battles. So, in the games from his previous life, having to hand over money after losing a Pokémon battle was actually perfectly reasonable, wasn't it?
Just after leaving the supermarket with May and Kirlia, Heath spotted the man from the supermarket in an alley nearby. The man leaned against the wall with vacant eyes, sitting right on the ground. Heath glanced at him and noticed that his head was lowered, his hands covered his face, and his shoulders trembled slightly. Kirlia noticed the scene too and gently tugged on Heath's sleeve.
"Heath, I can feel it. This person is very, very sad," Kirlia told Heath earnestly. Heath was not particularly surprised that Kirlia could sense the man's emotions. After all, it was perfectly normal. Even back when she was a Ralts, Kirlia could already sense other people's emotions, which was perfectly normal too, so there was nothing strange about her sensing his sadness now.
"Let's go. Everyone has their struggles."