Spikemuth.

  In the dirty er of the street between the old, abandoned warehouses on both sides, Shiro walked quickly along the walls, wearing a loose brown coat.

  The pink graffiti on the wall resembled twisted, malicious faces of demons, spewing out ing poison gas.

  This street was on the far west side of Spikemuth, and under normal circumstances, no one would pass through it.

  It had once beeown's garbage dump. Even though it had been ed by Pokémon before, a stench still lingered— a mix of deg fish and feces that had fermented over time.

  Any normal person would likely flee after taking a single breath of the stend never return.

  Shiro covered his face with a damp cloth, soaked in alcohol, which worked well to mask the foul odor.

  He decided to leave Spikemuth through this route, then head along Route 9, through the tunnel into Route 7, and toward Hammerlocke.

  Shiro po find some temporary work in Hammerlocke, while also training his Rookidee along the way.

  Before long, he had walked out of the trash filled street. After turning around two fences made of barbed wire, the se ged to grassnds and dirt roads.

  As the fresh st of grass ah gradually repced the foul odor, Shiro let out a quiet sigh of relief.

  He had officially left Spikemuth.

  Gar was a region where battles were a traditional , and there were trainers everywhere looking for battles. The official routes set by the League, known as travel routes, were the most on pces for battle enthusiasts to gather.

  As long as he entered Route 9 and hid among the many League trainers, he'd be safe from danger.

  Thinking this, Shiro still took a cautious look around to check if anyone was following him.

  "Rook!"

  At that moment, Rookidee hidden in his coat suddenly chirped and tapped his arm, signaling something.

  'There's someone nearby!'

  Shiro quickly turned around and looked in the dire pointed out by Rookidee.

  At the end of the purple bck wall, beside the two fences of barbed wire, a bck haired girl slowly emerged. She wore a bck jacket and a pink skirt, her arms crossed as she stood tall by a tree, staring at Shiro.

  It was the gym leader's daughter and the future gym leader's younger sister—Marnie!

  'What is she doing here?'

  For a moment, Shiro couldn't make sense of it. The only thing eg him to Marnie was Rookidee, who had gotten its wing injured due to "training."

  But now, it had beehan half an hour sihe murder. In such a short time, it would be impossible for someoo discover what happened, report it to the gym leader, and then send Mar to track him down.

  'No, the gym leader would never send Mar! This must be her own a, what is she trying to do?'

  "Ki!"

  Just as Shiro was deep in thought, Rookidee, hidden in his coat, nudged him with its head in one dire. It was clear that Rookidee wasn't trying to draw his attention to Marnie.

  Looking back, Shiro spotted a familiar, chubby figure standing in the bushes beside the dirt road. Rabby, leaning against a small tree, casually watched Shiro.

  'Rabby has e to find me personally? Is he here to kill me? But why is Marnie also here?'

  Caught betweewo of them, Shiro suddenly felt a little unsure of what to do.

  As a member of Team Yell, Rabby would at least be using Pokémon at the Intermediate level, easily able to crush Shiro and his Rookidee, who was only at the Novice level.

  And Marnie, being the gym leader's daughter, if she was here for some unknown reason to harm him, there was nothing he could do to fight back.

  "Yo! Isn't this Shiro." Rabby, holding his big belly, walked toward him from the tree, waving his hand iing and asking, "What are you doing outside of Spikemuth? I just finished a mission and ran into you."

  Rabby ughed, swaggering up to Shiro and stopping right in front of him. With a questioning g Marnie, he called out.

  "Miss! This is my nephew. What do you need him for? He always listens well!"

  Shiro's mind quickly raced, realizing that Rabby and Marnie weren't w together.

  This meant he was temporarily out of danger since Rabby wouldn't try to kill him in front of Marnie. Now, he o figure out what Marniei wanted.

  Seeing the situation, Marnie, who had been watg from a distance, slowly walked over.

  She frowned and scrutinized Shiro from head to toe before asking.

  "Is Rookidee with you?"

  Shiro froze for a moment, suddenly uanding. He quickly nodded.

  "That Rookidee..." Marnie spoke softly, furrowing her brow as she g Rabby, seemingly hesitant.

  As the daughter of the Spikemuth Gym Leader, Marnie had been trained in his way, whivolved using wild Pokémon for battle experience, often through harsh methods.

  This meant that captured wild Pokémon, like Rookidee, would often be injured. Although Marnie had prepared herself mentally for this, she couldn't help but feel some sympathy.

  When she saw Rabby carrying three injured Pokémon, she followed him to this spot.

  Marnie could sehe straensioween Rabby and Shiro but wasn't sure about the nature of their retionship. To avoid further fusion, she simply told him.

  "Make sure Rookidee's injuries heal properly."

  Shiro nodded quickly in agreement.

  "Don't worry! Rookidee and I have a strong bond..."

  "Then take this." Marnie reached into her pocket and pulled out several light blue dies, handing them to Shiro. "Feed these to Rookidee."

  Shiro blinked for a moment, unsure what the dies were. After staring at them, he realized they were the Exp. dies from the game.

  'In the game, these dies could be used to boost a Pokémon's experience points, but what use did they have in the real world? Did they promote Pokémon's growth?'

  Shiro made a random guess, smiling as he accepted the dies.

  "Thank you, Miss Marnie! Rookidee will be happy with these."

  Marnie nodded, still frowning as she rubbed her nose lightly.

  "Train it well," she said. "I'll e che it from time to time, don't think you sck off." She hadn't realized yet that Shiro nning to leave Spikemuth as soon as possible.

  Rabby's eyes widened as he shoved his fat body between them, raising his voi a loud shout.

  "Hahaha, that's right! Shiro… you're pnning to head into the wild, right? Let me take you to catch a Pokémon!"

  For Rabby, the ued appearanarnie pletely threw off his pns.

  'Was that Rookidee really so special to her? She actually followed it all the way here?' Rabby wondered.

  If it weren't for Shiro killing someone and running, with Marnie's prote, Rabby would have had no ce against him.

  But now, they were outside Spikemuth, and anything could happen. All he o do was disappear with Shiro in front of Marnie, and after that, if someone died, he could expin it however he liked.

  Marnie, hearing Rabby's words, fixed her gaze on Shiro.

  Shiro lowered his head slightly and said.

  "Thank you, Miss Marnie. I'm going to go catch a Pokémon with my uncle."

  "Hm?" Marnie hummed lightly, furrowing her brows befiving a slight nod. She wasn't ed about what they were up to, she just wao know where Rookidee was now.

  Marnie had already firmed the whereabouts of the other two injured Pokémon and hahem over to two other young men. But what Marnie didn't know was that those two young men, along with Shiro, had lost their parents on the same mission.

  Hearing Shiro's response, Rabby was a bit surprised a Shiro's i face with a fused look.

  He thought Shiro would make an excuse for Maro chase him off, so he could take advantage of the distand time to escape.

  "Uncle Rabby, should we go?"

  Shiro patted Rabby's back, looking as though he genuinely inteo leave with him.

  "Sure, sure…"

  Rabby couldn't help but ugh.

  'This boy is still calling me uncle even now. That's good, I wouldn't o waste energy chasing him. Once we got to a deserted area, it would be easy…'

  "Huh?"

  Halfway through the thought, Rabby felt a sharp pain in his lower back. In shock, he turned his head to look at Shiro, whose eyes were now cold and menag.

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