Zorua flicked her tail in boredom. She thought these humans were so strange. Wasn't it just Charmander being chased by Will's Caterpie all across Viridian Forest? What was so funny about that?
But as she looked at the elderly Charizard, Zorua grew curious. This Charizard shouldn't have been that old, so why did it look so aged?
"Oh, Grandpa Ma Zhide, you make me laugh every time you tell that story." Heath wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes. Although he had long known about Charizard's story, the thought of Charmander being chased by a whole swarm of Caterpie still made him want to laugh again.
"Hahahaha! That's A-Pen's embarrassing past. I'll remember it for the rest of my life." Old Ma Zhide chuckled and patted Charizard on the shoulder. Charizard bared its teeth at Heath. If Heath hadn't done that on purpose, why would Charizard have had to listen to its embarrassing past all over again?
After paying, old Ma Zhide left. Chuckling, he strolled leisurely through Viridian City with his Charizard. Viridian City was a little cold in winter, and Charizard wore a roughly made sweater that old Ma Zhide had knitted for it.
After Ma Zhide left, Zorua voiced the question on her mind. She really couldn't understand why that Charizard looked so old.
"Grandpa Ma Zhide used to be a Looker for the League. Charizard's injuries have been building up ever since then. Nurse Joy said its vitality had been severely depleted, so..." Heath sighed. Old Ma Zhide's story was no secret in Viridian City.
In fact, everyone in Viridian City knew about old Ma Zhide. After all, this highly decorated old man had been the protagonist of a film made by the League, and his exploits with Charizard had inspired countless young Trainers.
During that period, Charizard had become the most sought-after Pokémon in all of Kanto. Even now, Charizard remained immensely popular, and Charmander ranked first in the annual Starter Pokémon selections.
Seeing Zorua fall silent, Heath smiled and stroked her little ears. Zorua tucked her ears back, glared at Heath, then turned around and pointed her backside at him.
Heath didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he turned around to prepare lunch for his two Pokémon anyway.
"Farfetch'd, you're still having some trouble controlling the heat... Let's just do this. I'll set a cooking time for you." Heath looked at Farfetch'd with a bit of a headache.
Farfetch'd's knife skills were excellent, but its control of the heat was like something out of a disaster horror movie. Heath had noticed that Farfetch'd always ran into trouble at the duck-roasting stage.
Roast duck was simple enough that a fixed cooking time could be used to judge whether it was done, but a competent chef needed to know when the duck was ready on their own.
The texture of the duck's meat, the types of honey and oil spread over it, and even the day's weather and temperature all had to be taken into account. That was why Heath could make a very good roast duck, while Farfetch'd couldn't.
"Far! Fetch'd!" Farfetch'd waved its leek with great determination. Seeing it like that, Heath didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The little fellow actually refused. Still, on second thought, they could use this time to help Farfetch'd master heat control as soon as possible, which would make the road ahead easier. Heath gave up on the idea of cooking by formula.
"Um... Sabrina, what are you doing?" Giovanni stared blankly at Sabrina standing in his kitchen and sank into deep thought. Hadn't he told her to return to Saffron City and wait for the organization's next instructions?
"...I, I want to cook." Sabrina looked at Giovanni with an icy expression. Giovanni didn't pay it much mind. He knew her personality. This girl seemed not to know what smiles or sorrow were, and her face showed no particular emotion.
"Huh? Cook?" Sabrina's words left Giovanni rather bewildered. He really hadn't expected this subordinate of his to intend to cook in his house.
Sabrina nodded. She remembered what she had heard at Heath's place before: the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. Sabrina thought that made a lot of sense. Hadn't Heath already won over Giovanni's stomach?
If Heath knew that was how Sabrina described him, he would certainly have protested his innocence. Giovanni had merely invited him over to cook a meal.
Then, before Giovanni could react, Sabrina carried a bowl over to him, holding it in both hands as she offered it to him.
Giovanni looked at the bowl before him. It smelled of cucumber and chicken soup. He keenly noticed a cookbook in the kitchen, with a recipe for rice in cucumber and egg soup on the open page, but Sabrina seemed to notice where he was looking, too.
Under Giovanni's gaze, an invisible force dragged the cookbook aside.
The corner of Giovanni's mouth twitched, but seeing Sabrina standing stubbornly in front of him, he still accepted the bowl with a smile, intending to set it on a nearby table.
Then Giovanni realized that Sabrina was still watching him, staring without blinking. That put him under quite a bit of pressure. To avoid disappointing his subordinate, Giovanni picked up the bowl and took a sip.
"H-how... is it?" Sabrina asked with an expressionless face. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought this was some kind of experiment.
"Mmm, it's delicious," Giovanni said with a smile. Only then did he invoke his authority as Team Rocket's boss and order Sabrina to return to Saffron City and focus on gathering intelligence.
Once Sabrina left, Giovanni clutched his stomach and furrowed his brow. If he hadn't seen the cucumber and egg in that bowl of soup, he would have thought he'd accidentally drunk a bowl of salt water.
"Ugh... What's gotten into Sabrina?" Giovanni felt physically unwell. He couldn't understand why Sabrina was so determined to cook for him. Hadn't she just said yesterday that she wasn't interested in cooking?
"Ah... achoo!" Heath sneezed and rubbed his nose. Farfetch'd had accidentally gotten charcoal dust on his face again, but at that moment, Heath was delighted.
That was because Farfetch'd had finally made a roast duck that Heath considered good enough to sell to customers.
[Farfetch'd independently made a decent roast duck. You obtained Mobile Kitchen Prototype I.]
Heath froze for a moment. This reward really was unusual, but what exactly was a mobile kitchen prototype? And how was he supposed to collect the thing?
Before you continue