Chapter 41: About Whose Past
The night was already deep. The bright moonlight cast its reflection on the mirror-like surface of the water, which shimmered faintly.
From afar, the figure of the Squirtle Boss could be seen sitting by the edge of the water pool.
"You're here. Sit."
Sensing Rio's arrival, the Squirtle Boss spoke without turning his head.
Rio found a clean spot on the ground beside the Squirtle Boss and sat down with a plop. He scratched his head, momentarily unsure what to say.
"Thinking about the time since you came to the valley, it feels like a long time has passed already."
The Squirtle Boss stared intently at the water pool before him and began to speak slowly.
"It should be about two or three months, right?" Rio was a little unsure.
"When I first met you, I often found it quite incredible. You had clearly just hatched from an egg not long ago, yet your demeanor gave me a very mature feeling. And your ideas were also very interesting; many Pokémon expressed great fondness for those little gadgets of yours."
The Squirtle Boss said with a smile.
"Could it be that all Riolu are like this?"
"Ahaha, no, no, no, I should be rather special."
Should I reveal my identity as a transmigrator? Rio laughed to cover it up.
Fortunately, the Squirtle Boss didn't seem to mind this point much. He let out a deep sigh and said, "Did you know, a few years ago, there weren't so many Pokémon here."
Oh, oh, here it comes, here it comes, the classic flashback. Rio, who had always been curious about the Squirtle Boss's origins, perked up, his ears pricked to listen carefully.
"When I was still muddle-headed, one day, I hatched from my egg. The first thing I saw was my trainer. He was a youth with blue-green hair, very similar in color to my own. When he saw me hatch, the kind of joyful emotion that welled up from the bottom of his heart directly infected me."
"So, I resolved then—I would fight hard for this youth who dreamed of becoming an outstanding trainer."
"We played together, trained together, ate together, and even slept together. And the bond derived from this companionship led us to victory in one battle competition after another. We shared the joy of victory."
"I always believed that he and I would continue on like this, becoming the best partners, carving our honor into the highest hall of battle."
"But that was only what I believed."
There was a hint of desolation in the Squirtle Boss's tone.
"Soon, as he grew older, we gradually entered higher-level competitions. There were all sorts of Pokémon there, some strong, some weak. We were originally very confident that we could keep winning, until an accident occurred."
"I discovered that I couldn't evolve."
"I believe you also know that for Pokémon, evolution is a very important means of increasing strength. If you cannot evolve, it means you cannot obtain a stronger body. Without a stronger body, you cannot accommodate even more powerful energy. Moreover, evolution can also allow Pokémon to acquire various rich combat methods. In those high-level competitions, evolved Pokémon are often the heavy favorites to win."
"I don't know what happened. With our efforts, my level could always be raised. But every time I reached the threshold of evolution, I would feel a sturdy lock within my body, clamping down on all my energy, making me feel as if I were trapped in a cage, unable to break free."
"My trainer comforted me: if I couldn't evolve, then we would just work even harder to polish our battle techniques."
"However, no matter how outstanding the battle techniques, sometimes they truly cannot compare to an absolute difference in strength."
"We, who had always been invincible, started losing matches. And I saw the look in my trainer's eyes change from initial encouragement, to disappointment, to unwillingness, to indifference, to coldness, and finally, to abandonment."
"I was very scared, afraid that failure would cause us to lose our bond. So, I trained even more arduously in the use of my various moves. In matches, I also fought with all my might, often using a strategy of trading injury for injury to strive for victory."
"Under my desperate efforts, we could still win some matches. But every time I won a match yet had to receive treatment due to injuries, I only saw indifference in my trainer's eyes."
"Finally, in a battle against an Ursaring, I was deeply slashed across the face by the opponent's sharp claws. The intense pain made me faint. When I woke up, what greeted me was no longer a familiar face, but the cold, hard ground beneath me and a night sky as empty as tonight's."
"At that moment, I realized that I had been abandoned."
Even when narrating his tragic fate, the Squirtle Boss's tone remained faint. But Rio, listening beside him, felt a fire ignite in his heart. No way! Just because of this, he abandoned the Pokémon he had spent day and night with? What's the big deal about losing a match?
Let alone a magical creature like a Pokémon that understands human feelings, even if one raised a cat or a dog, the affection cultivated after spending so much time together would be hard to abandon so cleanly and directly.
And what if he failed? In his previous life, Rio, as a professional fighter, although often performing brilliantly, would inevitably encounter opponents he couldn't beat and suffer defeat. Even within the same weight class, there would be opponents with more talent and more skilled fighting techniques than you. If you couldn't beat them, what then? Then go train! Continue to train arduously! You can't just abandon your own body and lie flat, can you? This was something Rio, who couldn't continue his professional career due to heart disease in his past life, couldn't imagine.
"When I came to my senses, I found that I had unknowingly wandered into this forest. And it was here that I met her, who was still an Oddish at the time."
The Squirtle Boss's tone finally held a hint of fluctuation, and he continued in a reminiscent voice.
"The time I met her was just like the time I met you; she was also being chased by several Pidgeotto. Back then, here, the weak were the prey of the strong. Even if Oddish wasn't on the menu for Pokémon like Pidgeotto, being viciously teased and hunted was a common occurrence."
"At that time, she was thin and small, the leaves on her head withered yellow as if from malnutrition. Seeing her try her best to dodge the Pidgeottos' sharp beaks and talons, yet being completely helpless, I seemed to see myself. Moved for a moment, I unconsciously stepped forward and drove away those Pidgeotto, saving her."
"After saving her, I left. I didn't expect to meet her again a few days later. At that time, I was relatively unfamiliar with the forest here and hadn't eaten anything for days except for a little water. After she found out I had been starving, she very happily gave me more than half of the Berries she had painstakingly gathered. Seeing her pained yet pretending-not-to-care expression, I naturally felt bad. Afterwards, I also actively helped her resolve crises several times, and she, relying on her familiarity with the forest, led me around to find food and places to rest."
"Later on, we met that lazy big fellow. The three of us roamed the forest until we discovered this valley."
The big fellow, he must be referring to the Snorlax that appeared before, Rio thought.