Sunny was so nervous he was practically trembling. His mind raced frantically, searching for a way out. If the Pidgey discovered him—or worse, caught him—he would definitely die.
The Pidgey was now less than two meters away.
What could he do?
Against a flying creature like this, even if he let go and fell from the leaf, escaping its hunt would be nearly impossible.
And even if he somehow escaped its pursuit… would falling really be safe?
He had no idea what the ground beneath the tree looked like. For a newborn insect like him, falling to the forest floor could easily crush him to death—and even then, his corpse would probably still end up as the bird's meal.
Soon, Sunny made up his mind.
No matter what, falling at least offered a chance to live. Staying here offered none.
Before acting, however, he quietly spat out a thin strand of silk from his mouth, attaching it firmly to the leaf.
Fortunately, String Shot, Weedle's innate move, didn't require much effort to use.
Meanwhile, the Pidgey kept getting closer.
Sunny's heart sank.
If possible, he really didn't want to fall—but right now, he clearly had no other choice.
As the bird approached, Sunny could even feel the instinctive fear his insect body had toward birds. His immature body stiffened so much that he nearly slipped off the leaf.
If not for his human consciousness suppressing those instincts, he probably would have already exposed himself.
The sharp beak of the bird sent chills down his spine.
Even after being reborn as a Weedle, he had never felt despair before. But now, facing death again, a deep sense of helplessness overwhelmed him.
Was his life really going to end like this?
He had finally been reborn… only to die in a bird's mouth?
His mind flashed back to the moment before his rebirth—when he had struggled desperately in the flames.
Thick smoke and blazing fire had swallowed him instantly, giving him no chance to react. At that moment, the instinct to survive had felt like a cruel joke.
He had been powerless in his previous life.
Was he going to be powerless again now?
No.
Absolutely not.
I have to live—even if I'm just an insect!
Even Weedle could evolve.
He would evolve into Beedrill.
Maybe even Mega Beedrill.
But first—he had to survive.
And in this life, he would live far more brilliantly than before.
Seeing the bird's beak almost upon him, Sunny steeled his heart.
At the exact moment the Pidgey lunged forward, he released his suction-like feet from the leaf.
He dropped.
The leaf trembled slightly from his sudden disappearance. The Pidgey's beak pushed aside the leaf—
But there was no prey.
Only a thin strand of silk stretched taut.
"Poo…?"
The Pidgey tilted its head in confusion.
There didn't seem to be any food here.
Then what was this strand of silk doing here?
For some reason, the Pidgey simply ignored it.
It tilted its head, thought for a moment with its tiny brain, then flapped its wings and pushed off the branch, flying away.
The small branch swayed again from the movement.
As the branch shook, the leaves rustled—and beneath them, a Weedle dangled in midair.
At the end of the silk strand, a golden Weedle swayed gently with the wind and the motion of the branch.
Sunny felt confused.
Why didn't the Pidgey chase me down?
Putting that question aside for the moment, he quickly began devouring the silk strand.
If another creature saw him hanging here, things would get dangerous again.
Since the silk had originally come from his own body, it was naturally harmless for him to consume. However, once exposed to air, the silk hardened quickly, which caused a small amount of loss when reabsorbing it.
Still, it wasn't much—only around twenty to thirty percent.
"Slurp… slurp…"
As Sunny pulled himself upward, he eventually returned to the leaf where he had started.
Fortunately, he had eaten quite a few leaves after hatching, which gave him enough energy to perform that maneuver.
Even so, for a newborn insect, such intense "exercise" was exhausting.
Sunny felt a wave of fatigue, but his human mind forced him to keep going.
Because he knew something very clearly—
If he didn't keep eating and encountered another predator, he wouldn't necessarily be this lucky again.
This time, he didn't stay where he was.
Instead, he crawled to another branch.
A branch hidden deep within dense foliage.
Here, even if he ate some leaves, other creatures would have difficulty spotting him.
As he slowly devoured the leaves, Sunny felt his condition improve. The fatigue in his body gradually faded.
His newborn body even seemed to grow slightly stronger.
Using String Shot, he casually pulled several nearby leaves together, forming a small hidden space.
Only then did he finally have time to think about what had just happened.
"Why didn't that Pidgey follow me down?"
The more Sunny thought about it, the more puzzled he became.
His instincts told him something was strange.
The silk had been an obvious clue. He had even prepared to bite it off and fall straight to the ground if necessary. But the faint hope in his heart had made him hesitate—and that hesitation saved him from the deadly impact of hitting the ground.
He clearly remembered the Pidgey's reaction.
It had hesitated.
As if something had interfered with its perception.
Could something really have affected the Pidgey?
"Maybe… because of an Ability?"
Sunny pondered the idea.
In the Pokémon world, every Pokémon possessed its own Ability—a natural power unique to its species.
"If I remember correctly… Weedle's Abilities are Shield Dust or Run Away, right?"
Sunny felt like he had grasped the key.
Shield Dust was very common among Weedle. Most Weedle possessed it. Its effect prevented additional effects from moves.
Clearly, that had nothing to do with escaping a predator like Pidgey.
Run Away, however, was much rarer.
As Weedle's Hidden Ability, it was extremely uncommon—almost one in a million.
It didn't strengthen the user directly, but it guaranteed that the Pokémon could always escape from wild Pokémon.
Sunny's eyes widened.
"A divine skill!"
He was now certain.
The reason he had escaped the bird's attack was almost certainly this Hidden Ability.
Run Away must have caused the Pidgey to ignore his presence, making it think the prey had already disappeared—so it simply flew away.
"Thank Arceus!"
Since he had been reborn in the Pokémon world, it felt only appropriate to thank the Pokémon world's creator.
He hadn't expected to possess a Hidden Ability.
But when he looked at his glowing golden body, the answer became obvious.
He wasn't just any Weedle.
He was a shiny Weedle.
And if he could be shiny… having a Hidden Ability didn't seem so impossible.
Without Run Away, a bright golden bug like him would probably have been discovered and eaten by predators long ago.