Pokémon: Reborn as Lucario

Chapter 158: A Baffling Capture

Fuquan Town, a small town located at the foot of Fiery Volcano, was established thirty years ago.

Since it was located at the foot of a volcano, the climate here was inevitably quite hot and stuffy. Fiery Volcano released high-intensity heat all day long. For other places, this might be very bad, but for Fuquan Town, it was exceptionally suitable.

Because even in this kind of weather where one would break out in a sweat just by moving, many people would still choose to travel to this not-so-large town.

There were mainly two purposes:

First, the Pokémon League had established a Fire-type Pokémon Gym in this town, and it was a Guiding-type Gym. Therefore, many Pokémon trainers who were eager to start their professional path would come to this gym to challenge for a badge. However, if these rookie trainers thought it would be easy to obtain a badge just because this was a Guiding-type gym, then they were gravely mistaken. Because the Gym Leader here was a trainer full of whimsical ideas. We'll talk more about this later.

Second was the greatest feature of this Fuquan Town—the volcanic hot springs. This was also the origin of Fuquan Town's name. What drew even more tourists from far and wide was that the hot springs here were different from those in other places, possessing an extremely magical effect, and that was...

"Miss Flannery, where have you been? There are already several trainers waiting to challenge the Gym."

The assistant of the Fuquan Town Fire-type Pokémon Gym had finally managed to contact his own Gym Leader by phone. Before he could even say a few words, he was interrupted by the Gym Leader, Flannery.

"Alright, Xiao Ke. I have a great idea! You just do this, this, and this... and tell them that."

It wasn't the first time the assistant knew his own Gym Leader had all sorts of strange ideas, but this time it still gave him a headache.

"Sister Flannery, can't we just hold a normal Gym challenge? Every time we have to do so many strange things. It's gotten to the point where our gym's complaint rate in the Middel Pokémon League is consistently high."

"Hahaha! As a professional Pokémon trainer, one must learn to cope with all sorts of special situations! This is the first lesson I'm giving them as a Guiding-type Gym Leader, to prevent these rookies from always thinking the professional path is so simple."

You just want to have fun yourself, don't you? You're always the one having the most fun, the assistant grumbled inwardly.

However, the assistant had also grown up with this Sister Flannery since childhood. He naturally also knew how resolute this sister, whose boldness was no less than a man's, would be about the things she had decided on. So, he shook his head helplessly and could only follow her instructions to prepare.

But listening to certain miscellaneous sounds coming from the phone, the assistant's face turned grim again.

"Sister Flannery..."

"Hmm?"

"Did you go drinking with Grandpa Akagi again?"

"Hmm? Ahahaha, how could that be possible? I'm hanging up now, ha."

"Hey, hey, hey..."

Listening to the beeping sound from the phone, the assistant let out a long sigh.

Following this unreliable Gym Leader was really tiring him out.

After this trainer challenge event was over, the assistant could already see the large pile of complaint emails in the office.

…

After ending the call, Flannery grumbled a few words, "Aiya, why has my little assistant been so naggy lately? A complaint is just a complaint, what's the big deal? If those Pokémon trainers can't even overcome this little thing, they should leave this profession as soon as possible. After all, this line of work is not as glamorous as outsiders imagine."

Sitting opposite Flannery was a grandpa with a full head of white hair and a white beard. Hearing Flannery's complaint, he said with a smile, "You can't say that. The trainers nowadays are much better than before. And, with more people who love Pokémon joining, it can make this world an even better place."

Flannery stretched lazily.

"Grandpa Akagi, leaving aside other things, Fuquan Town, which you established with your own hands, has also helped quite a few trainers."

The woman raised the wine glass in front of her.

"Here, a toast to you."

She drained the glass in one gulp.

The old man called "Akagi" stroked his white beard, somewhat emotional. "To think that thirty years have passed just like that. Back then, I was just wholeheartedly trying to prevent others from repeating my mistakes. I didn't think too much about it. Who knew that now..."

He turned his head to look at the Pokémon lying behind him.

"Right, old friend?"

"Roar—"

A soft, low roar seemed to be in response to the old man Akagi.

"By the way, Flannery, you're drinking so much. Your little assistant is going to complain to me again."

"Don't worry about it! Drink up, drink up!"

…

A journey of two days and three nights. Míng Rìzhào's group (and Pokémon) were about to walk out of the jungle area.

"Xiao Ling, you have to do it like this. Grip the Poké Ball firmly with your right hand, and then," Míng Rìzhào threw a Poké Ball towards the bushes, "Heave-ho! You have to aim at the target to throw it."

Rio looked speechlessly at the Poké Ball, which drew a weak curve in the air. You're going to teach others with that throwing technique of yours? he thought.

Fengling, however, was learning very seriously. She held a Poké Ball on the side, and imitating Míng Rìzhào's motion, threw it at a Zigzagoon that was lying defeated before her Snivy.

"Dita." The Poké Ball stopped shaking and lit up with the red light of a successful capture.

"Right, right, right! Just like that!"

Míng Rìzhào applauded, looking happier seeing someone else capture a Pokémon than when she did it herself.

Fengling picked up the Zigzagoon's Poké Ball from the ground, also looking rather excited.

In these two days, watching Míng Rìzhào constantly practice capturing Pokémon had also made her feel a kind of longing. After imitating and learning, she had finally thrown the first Poké Ball of her life to capture a Pokémon today.

Snivy stared at the Zigzagoon's Poké Ball.

Fengling also sensed her Snivy's gaze. The girl with glasses smiled, long-pressed the Poké Ball's button, and released the Zigzagoon.

"Ah, I'm so sorry, little fellow." Fengling stroked the Zigzagoon's somewhat prickly fur, then took out a few Pokémon snacks from her backpack and handed them to the Zigzagoon. "These few snacks are compensation. I'm sorry for bothering you."

Then the girl picked up her Snivy and said with a beaming smile, "Now you're not jealous anymore, are you?"

Snivy turned her face away. I wasn't jealous at all.

Only the Zigzagoon was left, holding the few snacks in its hands with a baffled expression, twitching its nose. I was sleeping soundly. How did I suddenly get knocked down by a vine whip, then captured, and then released again?

But smelling the fragrance of the snacks, the Zigzagoon also felt it was a pretty good deal. So it magnanimously decided not to argue with them and turned to slip away.

And by the way, it also snatched the fruit Rio was eating from his hand.

Rio: "???"

Little bro, what's your deal???

Zigzagoon's "Pickup" ability allowed it to pick up items used by the opponent.

But snatching the fruit right out of my hand is a bit too much.

"Xiao Ling, you don't like Zigzagoon? I quite like it. Its dazed look is quite cute."

Míng Rìzhào said as she walked forward, casually picking up the Poké Ball she had thrown.

"Hmm... for now, I still want to focus on raising Snivy first."

"That's true. After all, raising Pokémon requires a lot of time and energy... Huh?"

Míng Rìzhào, who was casually chatting with Fengling, suddenly cried out in surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"Ilu, lu?"

Rio and Ruru quickly rushed to their trainer's side.

Míng Rìzhào raised the Poké Ball in her hand with some disbelief. The indicator light of the Poké Ball was flashing, clearly indicating that a Pokémon had already been captured inside.

"???"

"I just threw it casually, and it actually hit a Pokémon? And captured it?"

Are you sure this girl isn't the chosen daughter of Arceus?

Rio looked up at the sky, towards the author outside the screen.

(Author, picking his nose: Ah, I'll call and ask Arceus for you, okay?)

"Xiao Zhao, quick! Let it out and see what Pokémon it is!"

Fengling was also very interested on the side.

Naturally, Míng Rìzhào herself was also very curious. So she gripped the Poké Ball and shouted with great momentum, "Come out, my partner!"

The Poké Ball shone with a brilliant white light!

"Caw, caw, caw—" a few ordinary crows flew past in the sky.

After shining with great ceremony for a while, the Poké Ball's light continued to flash.

And before the group (and Pokémon), there wasn't even a single hair.

"It can't be summoned???"

Míng Rìzhào, maintaining her Pokémon-summoning pose, widened her eyes.

This was the first time she had encountered a situation where a Pokémon captured in a Poké Ball could not be released.

So scared that she immediately took out her phone and posted on a Pokémon enthusiast forum she frequently visited: "Captured a Pokémon that can't be summoned. Does anyone know what's going on? Waiting online, very urgent!"

The moment the post went out, netizens immediately popped up.

"First!!!"

"The sofa is mine!"

"Friendly reminder to the one above, your sofa is gone!"

"Fourth is also mine."

"The one below is my wife."

"Get lost."

"Suggest you go to the Pokémon Center to have it checked. Is it possible the Pokémon itself is too weak to be summoned? Purely a guess."

"The one above is very right. Then the question is, why is the pigeon in your profile picture so big?"

"Oh, it's because of the refraction of light."

"Mm-hmm, I understand everything you said. The question is, why is the pigeon so big?"

"I already said it's because of the light!"

"Yeah, I know! But why is the pigeon so big?"

"…"

Rio was amused. No matter in which dimension, there is never a shortage of hilarious, sand-sculpture netizens.

Amidst a flood of replies, the suggestion to go to the Pokémon Center seemed quite reasonable.

Míng Rìzhào scratched her head:

Should she immediately have Ruru go back to the Pokémon Center in Yuanqi City? After all, if what that netizen said was correct, the Pokémon in the Poké Ball might be in a weak state right now. But they were already very far from Yuanqi City now. Ruru's [Teleport] might not be able to support such a long-distance transfer. After all, there was no Pokémon Center nearby, and in the two days of travel, Ruru's psychic power had already been somewhat overloaded.

Or should she wait until they get to Fuquan Town? She was just afraid this Pokémon couldn't last until then...

Rio also saw the difficult expression on Míng Rìzhào's face and proactively expanded his Aura to probe—the Aura inside the Poké Ball was relatively weak, but it was still fluctuating relatively stably, indicating that the Pokémon was not in any life-threatening danger. Moreover, the Poké Ball itself had a function to soothe the Pokémon. He believed it would be no problem to hold out until Fuquan Town.

"Alright, then let's hurry to Fuquan Town."

After listening to what Rio said, Míng Rìzhào made a decision.

"I hear there's a cable car station on Luminous Mountain ahead. Let's go take the cable car."

They had originally planned to travel leisurely on foot to Fuquan Town. After discussing with Fengling, Míng Rìzhào changed her mind.

And so, the group of people (and Pokémon) quickened their pace and walked out of the jungle area.

They arrived at the rocky area.

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