"Waaah, boo hoo hoo!"
"Pika pika." (Has it been a day already??)
(It has indeed been a day)
After bidding farewell to Caesar, Ash and his group continued their journey. However, Brock's mournful sobbing never ceased along the way. If he had been wailing loudly, it might have been bearable. But now, he was whimpering like a little girl, which was downright nauseating.
"I said, Brock, stop crying already. Look, everyone's staring at you weirdly."
"But, but! I still want to cry. Ah!"
Seeing Brock like this, they all stepped back to distance themselves from him a bit.
Suzy looked at Brock helplessly and said, "Actually... if you think about it carefully, it's normal for Brock to cry, right?"
"True. Being rejected by a Pokémon... But it's really strange. To be honest, I'm definitely not as good as Brock when it comes to caregiving. Why wasn't Brock chosen instead~?"
This was something Misty had been wondering about. After all, she knew her own limitations—she could handle Water-type Pokémon just fine, but when it came to breeding, she truly couldn't compare to Brock. Meowth, upon hearing Misty's words, glanced slightly...
He glanced at Brock and whispered, "Actually, you being able to relax like this is partly thanks to the boss. You see, you're usually quite close to the old lady, and even Lyn Da-jie..."
"Ahem, Meowth, get to the point..."
Lyn interrupted Meowth—he really had no filter, though both Misty and May already knew about it anyway. Prompted by Lyn's reminder, Meowth quickly caught himself.
"Oh, sorry about that. Since you're all pretty close to the boss, you naturally carry a bit of his scent... And since the boss is the one these Dratini are most familiar with, it's no surprise they'd choose you."
"So that's how it is. We're benefiting from Ash's good fortune!"
"Pretty much, but Sister Lin, don't sell yourselves short. If you weren't decent people, the Dratini wouldn't have chosen you either."
Decent people:
Misty glanced at the tearful Brock, not knowing what to say.
Meowth took one look at Brock and thought to himself - he brought this on himself. His constant flirting behavior had greatly displeased the giant Dragonite. He worried that one day Brock might be tempted by someone's beauty - and either give away the Dratini or have it stolen."
"There's no way to argue with that."
Suzy thought about Brock's usual behavior and couldn't help but look at the still-sobbing Brock. She took out a bottle of drink, sipped on it while saying, "So you see, the giant Dragonite and the Dratini just slightly raised their favorability towards him, and now it's completely gone."
"No wonder Dragonite was calling out earlier—it was actually warning Dratini..."
Lyn finally remembered that Dragonite had indeed been calling out before Ash started chatting with it. She had been wondering what was going on at the time, but now she finally understood.
"That's right... The giant Dragonite has actually been introducing you all along—"
"For example, Sister Lin. The giant Dragonite said you excel at battles, so the battle-loving Dratini chose you. Misty is skilled with water types, so the water-loving Dratini chose her. As for Nurse Joy, since she's good at caring for Pokémon, the Dratini that wanted a gentle trainer chose her."
Upon hearing Meowth's explanation, Misty, Nurse Joy, and Lyn finally realized—everything had been part of the giant Dragonite's plan all along. Hah.
"So, you see, Meowth. If Brock had just behaved a little better, he wouldn't have ended up getting the short end of the stick from the giant Dragonite. Though the giant Dragonite did say Brock takes good care of Pokémon, it also mentioned he's a total pervert who's easily..."
"Being so infatuated with the older sister that he let the Dratini get stolen, even gave it away... (PS: In the original series, Brock was once tempted by beauty and encouraged Ash to trade Pokémon)"
...
Misty and the other two glanced at the sobbing Brock, suddenly realizing that maybe he really deserved it:
Just as Misty and the others were looking at Brock with disdainful eyes, Ash, who was comforting him, was pulled away by Gardevoir who couldn't bear to watch any longer. At the same time, Gardevoir used her psychic powers to seal Brock's ability to speak.
"Wahhhh!!"
"Gardevoir." (Finally, it's quiet. The whole day you just cry, making it so hard for me to win over my dear one~?)
"Pi...ka..."_?(You really are:.)
Pikachu looked at Gardevoir, not knowing what to say. Meanwhile, Gardevoir familiarly wrapped her arm around Ash's and said, "Gardevoir! (This is called love~ It's different from the friendship and familial bond between you and your dear one)"
"Thank you, Gardevoir, but is this really okay?"
Ash looked at Brock who had been silenced. Although he felt relieved, he couldn't help feeling it wasn't quite right. Gardevoir shook her head, then leaned her head against Ash's arm.
"Sa-nai~" (Darling, don't worry about it~)
Seeing Gardevoir like this, Ash felt somewhat strange for some reason, but after thinking about it, he decided to let it go. After all, Gardevoir had been quite clingy even when she was just a Ralts.
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