Chapter 137: Fun Facts about Viridian City
The man, woman, and child… they looked like a typical family out for an evening picnic— a checkered blanket was spread on the grass nearby, laden with a picnic basket, an insulated cooler, and remnants of food.
Seeing Xiu pause and look towards them, the man offered another friendly wave. Xiu glanced around again – still no one else nearby in this particular corner of the vast park.
'Why me?' he wondered, but curiosity, and perhaps a subconscious desire for simple human interaction after days of intense stress, prompted him to walk over.
"Hello," he greeted them politely as he approached. "Do you need something?"
As Xiu spoke, the small girl, still clinging shyly to her father's leg, glanced up at him briefly. Her expression was… strangely vacant? Indifferent? Hard to read. She quickly looked away again.
"Oh, nothing urgent," the man replied cheerfully. "Just saw you sitting over there all alone, looking a bit down. Thought you might like some company." He retrieved a cold bottle of water from the cooler beside him and held it out to Xiu. "Here, have a drink. Weather's still warm, even with the sun going down."
"Uh… thank you, but no need," Xiu started to refuse, feeling awkward accepting charity from strangers.
But the man insisted, half-rising and pressing the cold bottle firmly into Xiu's hand with a warm smile. "Take it, take it! Stay hydrated!"
Feeling the condensation cool against his palm, Xiu relented with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Well… thank you."
Before he could say more, the woman beside the man smiled kindly and opened the picnic basket, retrieving a small box. "We have some leftover snacks too," she offered warmly. "Homemade cookies. Please, have some, if you're not in a hurry."
Xiu looked back and forth between the two of them, genuinely perplexed by their unsolicited kindness. Why are they being so nice to a complete stranger who looks like he just crawled out of a hedge? It felt… odd. Out of place.
"Really, it's fine," the man insisted, gesturing towards their blanket. "Sit with us for a bit, if you like. Won't find weather this pleasant again for a while. Enjoy it while it lasts!"
Intrigued by their friendliness, and having nowhere else to be, Xiu accepted their offer, sitting down carefully on the edge of their picnic blanket. "Why do you say that?" he asked, curious. "Is a storm coming?"
"Weather-wise? No," the man chuckled. "But around here, we have a saying: 'The Forest grows fierce when summer arrives.'" He gestured vaguely towards the east, in the direction of the vast Viridian Forest bordering the city.
Xiu listened intently as the man explained. This large, open grassy area, while pleasant now in the late spring/early summer, became practically unusable during the peak summer months.
Without shade trees, the direct sun made it unbearably hot, easily exceeding 30 degrees Celsius. People only really used the park during the milder spring and autumn seasons.
But the bigger issue was the Forest itself. "Come high summer," the man continued, his tone turning more serious, "the Pokémon deep within Viridian Forest… they get irritable. Aggressive. Territorial disputes flare up, food becomes scarcer… they start pushing outwards." He sighed.
"Almost every year, around July or August, we get reports – Pokémon wandering out of the forest, causing trouble in the suburbs, sometimes even attacking people or livestock. It's a dangerous time."
"Doesn't the Alliance… or the Rangers… do anything about it?" Xiu asked, surprised.
"Oh, they manage it," the man conceded. He was clearly knowledgeable about local affairs, happy to chat. "See those apartment blocks over there, near the forest edge?" He pointed.
"Those are mostly League-owned properties. Barracks, basically. During the summer danger period, the Forest Rangers stationed deeper within Viridian actually pull back, temporarily relocating to those barracks. And the League organizes increased patrols – Trainers, Rangers, sometimes even Officer units – around the city outskirts to intercept any dangerous Pokémon that wander too close."
He shrugged. "As for us residents? We just know to avoid the forest edge, stay out of these border parks during those months. Things usually quiet down again by late autumn, and the Rangers return to their deeper posts."
"Forest Rangers?" Xiu repeated, the term catching his interest again. He recalled Bao Ba mentioning them, and Oak's critique of League training. "Are there many stationed in Viridian Forest?"
"Quite a few," the man confirmed. "It's a massive forest, connecting all the way up to the Indigo Plateau and surrounding dozens of small, isolated towns and villages that don't have proper road access. Vehicles can't reach them. The Rangers are vital – they maintain the old foot trails, act as messengers, monitor Pokémon activity, provide emergency assistance… essential lifeline for those remote communities."
"So what happens to those villages when the Rangers pull back in the summer?" Xiu wondered.
"Ah, the summer evacuation is mostly for Rangers stationed in the deepest, most dangerous sections," the man clarified. "And those remote villages… they've survived for generations. They have their own ways of coping, their own defenses. They manage."
Xiu listened, fascinated, absorbing the local knowledge, the details of life lived so close to a vast, potentially dangerous wilderness. His mental image of Viridian City, and the Kanto region itself, continued to shift, becoming richer, more complex than the simplified version he carried from his past life.
After chatting for a while longer about the region, the man looked at Xiu curiously. "So, young man," he asked, "judging by your interest… are you a Trainer yourself?" He subtly glanced towards Xiu's belt, where the faint outlines of Poké Balls might be visible beneath his jacket, though Xiu currently had them stored in his backpack.
'How did he guess?' Xiu wondered, slightly surprised. He decided honesty was the simplest. "How could you tell?"
The man smiled knowingly. "Your reaction earlier, when we talked about Pokémon attacking people," he explained. "Calm. Unsurprised. Not the reaction of someone unfamiliar with Pokémon encounters. Plus," he added, "your questions now… knowledgeable, specific. Even if you're not a Trainer, you've clearly had significant contact with Pokémon."
"Something like that," Xiu admitted vaguely. "More of an aspiring Breeder, really."
"Ah, a Breeder!" the man exclaimed with genuine enthusiasm. "A noble pursuit! Takes real dedication and understanding." He sighed wistfully.
"I always dreamed of being a Trainer myself, back in the day. Traveling, adventures… but," his expression softened as he looked fondly at the woman sitting quietly beside him, "…life had other plans." He reached over and gently took her hand. "Met this one," he said, his voice turning warm, "and suddenly, adventuring didn't seem so important anymore."
The woman just smiled softly, a deep affection evident in her eyes as she returned his gaze. It was clear, even to an outsider like Xiu, that this wasn't the first time she'd heard this sentiment.
Xiu felt a sudden, sharp pang of something unexpected – not embarrassment this time, but a fleeting sense of… envy. Witnessing their simple, enduring affection… it highlighted his own solitary existence.
He quickly suppressed the feeling, offering them a polite, slightly forced smile. 'Ah,' he thought wryly.
The man continued, wanting to share the story and recounting how they'd met. He'd been a young man from a modest background; she was the daughter of his wealthy employer. An unlikely romance blossomed, opposed fiercely by her parents. They met in secret, often using this very park – then just an undeveloped patch of suburban wasteland – as a clandestine rendezvous spot, far from disapproving eyes.
"Eventually," the man concluded, his voice filled with remembered emotion, squeezing his wife's hand gently, "her parents found out again. Gave her an ultimatum. She chose… elopement. Chose me." He looked at her, his eyes shining. "Don't know what my life would be without you."
Xiu listened silently, touched by the simple, heartfelt story despite being single himself. He looked at the couple, at their quiet contentment, their shared history etched onto their faces. A different kind of life, a different kind of fulfillment than the grand adventures he (or perhaps Li Xiu) had once vaguely dreamed of.
His gaze drifted towards the small girl still sitting silently beside her father, clutching a small, worn plush doll. She hadn't said a word the entire time, hadn't reacted to the conversation, just stared blankly ahead. Xiu had initially dismissed it as childhood shyness.
But now, as his gaze lingered on her for a moment, their eyes met again. And in that brief instant, Xiu felt it – a sudden, strange, chilling sensation brushing against his mind. Not telepathy, not emotion… something else.
Cold. Empty.
Like touching something ancient and deeply… wrong. The feeling vanished as quickly as it came, leaving only an inexplicable sense of profound emptiness, a void where something should have been.
Xiu quickly looked away, frowning slightly, disturbed by the fleeting, bizarre sensation.
'What was that?' He glanced back at the little girl, who was now focused intently on arranging the plush doll's dress, seemingly oblivious, her expression still blank, vacant.