When Rattata saw that Giovanni had not run away but had come forward to meet it instead, it flew into a fury. It leaped up, driving its big forehead straight at his face!
Tackle!
If that hit landed squarely, even a concussion would have been getting off lightly.
Alarm bells rang in Giovanni's head. As the red apple sent his adrenaline soaring, his thoughts remained perfectly clear.
He twisted sideways, quickly snatched a stone off the ground, and smashed it against Rattata's head.
Then he rolled across the ground, narrowly avoiding the deadly blow, and swung his branch hard, actually landing a solid hit on Rattata's flank.
Although the blow did not fatally injure Rattata, it hurt enough to make it falter.
What followed, however, was an even fiercer fury. It opened its mouth, its sharp front teeth gleaming coldly, and launched a ferocious attack on Giovanni.
Crack! Crack!
Each bite snapped another piece off the branch. The tremendous force wrenching it around left Giovanni's arms numb and aching, as though filled with lead.
Rattata watched the branch grow shorter and shorter, its little eyes full of disdain and mockery.
Giovanni caught its look, of course, and silently cursed, You beast. But he did not dare let his guard down for a moment. He was waiting for an opportunity.
An opportunity to turn everything around in one stroke.
Giovanni focused every ounce of his attention. Sweat slid down his gaunt face and dripped onto the parched ground, where it was instantly absorbed without a trace.
The instant Rattata leaped again.
He made as if to fall, turned his wrist, and slashed the branch, sharpened by Rattata's bites, toward the side of its neck with lightning speed. That was a vital spot on most small animals.
"Ratta!"
A piercing screech tore through the air. Rattata's body shuddered violently, blood instantly staining its fur red as it rolled on the ground in agony.
Rattata had never imagined that the branch it had bitten through would become the thing that killed it.
Crafty human!
The gamble paid off!
Delighted, Giovanni did not pause for a moment. He threw himself onto Rattata, pulled out the branch, and desperately stabbed it into the wound.
"Die! Just die!"
Even when Rattata's claws left wounds all over his body, he did not stop.
He gasped for breath, sweat mingling with blood and soaking his clothes. His ulcerated hands and the branch had stuck together.
Beneath him, Rattata slowly lost its life and warmth...
After killing Rattata, Giovanni could no longer hold out, exhausted in both body and mind.
He collapsed to the ground with a thud. Blood trickled drop by drop from his densely packed wounds, seeping into the soil of Viridian Forest.
The warmth was draining from Giovanni's body as well. It seemed that what had just happened had been his last dance in this world.
His consciousness blurred as he murmured:
"I can't accept this. I haven't even touched a Poké Ball. How embarrassing."
Whoosh!
A powerful gust blew past. The branches of Viridian Forest shook wildly, and the once-noisy forest seemed to fall silent.
A glimmer of green light bloomed, forging a connection with Giovanni from the soil of Viridian Forest through his scarlet blood.
Pokémon and humans alike were inseparable parts of this world.
Pokémon often possessed extraordinary innate gifts, but among humans, too, there were those favored by the world.
Green light filled Giovanni's body, and his gruesome wounds began to heal slowly. Yet his already gaunt body grew even thinner, as though its nutrients had been drained away.
Hunger swallowed Giovanni whole like a surging tide.
As though he truly had been blessed by heaven, a soft, feminine voice rang out from deep within Viridian Forest.
"Boss, there's someone over there. I told you my Houndoom couldn't have misheard."
As the footsteps drew closer, a series of barks reached him.
Hunger forced Giovanni to open his eyes. In his blurred vision, an enormous black canine head appeared, crowned with great demonic horns.
That fierce, haughty gaze alone could have reduced the Rattata Giovanni had risked his life to kill to dust in an instant.
"Come back, Houndoom."
A beautiful purple-haired woman in a black uniform with an "R" on her chest hurried over.
The Houndoom, as powerfully built as a calf, immediately returned to her side.
Behind her were more than a dozen young people in the same uniforms, surrounded by all sorts of Pokémon.
Strangely, every one of them had a long string of Poké Balls hanging at their waist.
Under League regulations, each Trainer could carry only six Poké Balls containing Pokémon.
Clearly, they were a little shady.
But hunger left Giovanni no time to think about anything else. He raised his hand with all his strength and forced a single word from his mouth.
"Hungry..."
Slap!
The purple-haired beauty showed no distaste for Giovanni's filthy hand, covered in blood and dirt. She clasped it and solemnly assured him:
"Kid, don't worry. Now that you've met Team Rocket, there'll be bread, there'll be milk, there'll be everything!"
Giovanni nearly choked and died on the spot. Is that what I'm asking to hear?
At that moment, an elegant beauty emerged from behind the dozen or so uniformed young people. She had dark purple hair and wore a red suit, red high heels, and stockings over her long legs.
She surveyed the area, taking in the blood on the ground and the dead Rattata with the branch still embedded in its body.
Only then did she look at Giovanni lying on the ground. Her slender brows rose slightly. "Interesting. With a body like that, you actually killed a Pokémon."
She strolled forward. The beauty holding Giovanni's hand immediately let go and stood respectfully to one side. "Boss."
Giovanni's hand, which he had used all his strength to keep raised, remained sticking up all alone, looking rather awkward.
The beauty addressed as Boss looked down at Giovanni, pressed her red lips together, and extended a hand toward him.
"Kid, become my son!"
Giovanni's eyes, which he had barely been able to keep open, suddenly widened. A mouthful of stagnant blood surged to his lips, and his face turned bright red.
"Gurgle... I'll be... glurk..."
Before Giovanni could get the rest out, he passed out.
The red-clad beauty turned to the purple-haired beauty beside her in some puzzlement.
"Miyamoto, did he agree?"
Miyamoto immediately nodded and answered earnestly:
"He definitely agreed. Didn't he say, 'I'll be'? Besides, Boss, you're the leader of Team Rocket. Other people couldn't get an opportunity like this even if they begged."
This woman in red was none other than the leader of Team Rocket.
Although Team Rocket was not yet the foremost underground force in the Kanto Region, it was no small player.
And coincidentally, her surname was Giovanni too: Giovanni Rika.
Giovanni Rika patted Miyamoto gently. "Silly, I never said who I was. How would he know my identity?"
Miyamoto thought it over. That did seem to be true. "You're right. But it doesn't matter. He can't get away now anyway."
"That's right." Giovanni Rika nodded, then smiled with her lips pressed together, as though something amusing had occurred to her.
"I wonder whether he'll get along with his nine hundred and ninety-nine adoptive brothers and sisters?"
At this, Miyamoto frowned and made a suggestion to Giovanni Rika:
"Boss, are we really going to do that? Those are a thousand human lives. We took risks to bring them away from right under the League's nose."
Giovanni Rika gave Miyamoto an indifferent glance.
Miyamoto, who had been able to joke with Giovanni Rika just a moment ago, felt her scalp prickle and the hair on her back stand on end. She hurriedly lowered her head. "I spoke out of turn! Everything is yours to decide!"
Giovanni Rika waved to the dozen or so subordinates behind her. They immediately came forward and lifted the unconscious Giovanni.
Giovanni Rika, meanwhile, spoke impassively to Miyamoto:
"Without me, they might have died long ago. I'm giving them an opportunity now, an opportunity to leap up and become dragons."
"Miyamoto, you should understand. Only the most outstanding person can lead Team Rocket to the pinnacle. That's our ideal, isn't it? What does it matter if the methods are a little extreme?"
Looking at Giovanni Rika's slender back and the commanding presence she radiated, Miyamoto dropped to one knee and cried out from the bottom of her heart.
"Everything is for the organization!"
Before you continue