The sea breeze no longer carried the usual fresh, salty scent.
Instead, there was a faint, nauseating sweetness in the air, laced with the acrid reek of chemicals.
The closer Ash and the others got to Granny Kin's so-called "Paradise Heaven" construction site, the thicker that stench became.
Along with it, a heavy sense of foreboding pressed down on them.
Something bad had definitely happened.
The site was surrounded by a shabby temporary fence, but the entrance was unguarded and eerily quiet.
High above, Pidgeotto circled restlessly, crying out in alarm.
…Not that anyone but Ash's group could tell—
Pidgeotto were common all over Kanto.
Bird calls from the sky were about as normal as it got.
"Let's go in and take a look," Ash murmured, keeping his voice low.
He slipped through a broken gap in the fencing first.
What they saw inside the site made all three of them freeze.
A chill ran straight up their spines.
This was supposed to be a busy construction zone.
Right now, it looked more like a silent slaughterhouse.
The ground wasn't just muddy—it was covered in a thick, slick layer of gelatinous slime, faintly purple, glistening in the afternoon sun with a sickly sheen.
The cloying chemical sweetness in the air hit its peak here, almost suffocating.
"W-what… is this?" Misty's voice shook.
The Horsea in her arms started thrashing wildly, trying to bury itself deeper against her chest in sheer terror.
Brock crouched down, dipped a finger into the slime, rubbed it between his fingers, then brought it closer to his nose.
His expression instantly went grim.
"It's jellyfish bodily fluids… mixed with a high-concentration chemical agent," he said, voice dropping.
"This smell—this is a potent toxin designed specifically to destroy Water-type Pokémon's cell osmotic balance."
His gaze swept over the site.
"They lured them into this shallow area with bait… then dumped poison into the water. For creatures that live by filtering seawater, their bodies would fail, and their internal fluids would just… leak out."
In other words?
A very villainous method.
And one that was explicitly banned in the Pokémon world.
The League's upper ranks knew very well that "gods" existed.
Aside from a few lunatics, most people had the basic sense not to go out of their way to piss off divine beings.
Brock didn't have to finish the thought.
The scene itself said enough.
Several big metal cages were piled to one side, like an afterthought.
Inside them, Ash could just make out the shriveled, twisted shapes of jellyfish Pokémon still twitching faintly.
Their bright, gemlike domes were dull and wrinkled, all their former luster gone.
Fortunately, both Tentacool and Tentacruel were notoriously tough.
They weren't ordinary jellyfish.
Research by Pokémon Professors had shown that Tentacool normally drifted in the shallows, and it wasn't uncommon to see them washed up and dried out on the sand at low tide.
Even after being dried out on the beach, they could often survive.
Their bodies were mostly water, so once removed from the sea they shrank and shriveled.
But as long as they touched water again—they revived.
Their vitality was about on par with tardigrades.
Roughly like that.
"Bastards…" Misty's eyes instantly turned red.
As someone who loved Water-types, she could barely stand seeing this.
Looking down at the Horsea trembling in her arms, a surge of pure fury rushed straight to her head.
"How dare they?! This is a massacre!"
Just then—
A sharp, smug cackle drifted over from the prefab office deeper inside the site.
The door swung open.
Granny Kin stepped out, supported and surrounded by a group of men in black suits—"bodyguards" on paper, but they looked more like hired thugs.
Her face was lit with satisfaction.
She surveyed the "harvest" before her like an artist admiring a completed masterpiece.
"Heh heh heh… Do you see?"
"This is what happens when you get in my way."
She pointed her cane at the scene of carnage, her tone dripping with cruel pride.
"Just a little trick, and these troublesome pests walk right into the trap."
"Once this mess is cleaned up, my Paradise Heaven can start construction again right away!"
Her gaze finally settled on Ash and the others, then on the Horsea in Misty's arms.
Her lips curled with open mockery.
"Oh? You even brought a little pet."
"What's this? Here to play hero and meddle in my business?"
…For a rich woman, Granny Kin's class was impressively low.
The proof? She hadn't recognized Misty or Brock at all.
"…You're really making me angry," Ash said quietly.
His hands were balled into fists so tight his knuckles whitened.
He stared at the puddles of dissolved Tentacool, at the jellyfish barely clinging to life in the cages.
Lt. Surge's warning.
Horsea's terror.
Granny Kin's gloating face—
All of it crashed together in his mind.
Ash lifted his head.
His eyes were as cold and flat as a frozen lake.
When he spoke, his voice wasn't loud—but it cut cleanly through the reeking air, carrying a chill that made people's hearts clench.
"…There really are things in this world that can't be saved."
"And you—"
"You're the worst kind of trash that shouldn't exist at all."
Honestly, from Ash's point of view, a few casualties among humans and Pokémon alike were "normal."
Not just fights between humans and Pokémon—even human vs. human, or Pokémon vs. Pokémon battles leading to injuries and death… that was reality.
People choked to death eating.
People drowned drinking water.
Birth, old age, illness, and death were all part of life.
But that did not include large-scale slaughter.
"You stupid brat… Do you have any idea how much money I've lost because these jellyfish delayed my construction?" Granny Kin snapped.
The more she talked, the more irritated she sounded.
In her mind, once her project launched, it would bring massive economic benefits to Vermilion.
From the moment construction began, her hotel was "contributing to the city."
And yet Vermilion refused to give her the support she wanted.
Even the Gym Leader wouldn't help.
So as far as Granny Kin was concerned, she'd been forced to take matters into her own hands.
She was just an ordinary rich person—
and clearly had no idea what was really bothering Lt. Surge and the others.
"Pokémon, humans—it's all the same to me," she spat.
"If they get in the way of my profits, they deserve to die."
The League's laws? She didn't care.
Even if they banned the destruction of large Pokémon habitats, she still didn't care.
Her thinking was simple:
Lots of people break the rules. Why should I be the one they catch?
"Why are you wasting words on her?" Misty snapped. "She doesn't deserve to hear it!"
"Go, Starmie!"
"Break those cages and free the Tentacool and Tentacruel!"
Misty hurled out a Poké Ball.
Her Starmie burst into being, spinning like a thrown discus as it shot forward.
It sliced past the iron cages in a purple blur, smashing the locks and blowing the doors open.
"You brats are really getting above yourselves," Granny Kin snarled, her expression turning venomous.
Should she "get rid of" these three kids?
…It wasn't impossible.
The air between the two sides went razor-sharp in an instant.
It felt like the slightest spark could ignite a full-on fight.
At that moment—
"Pika?" Pikachu's ears twitched.
It had sensed something wrong.
The disturbance was coming from out at sea.
And the sound of the waves was getting louder.
And louder.
Crash—
Crash—
Crash—
CRASH!!
A sudden, massive surge pounded against the makeshift breakwater, sending water washing all the way into the site and over the sprawled jellyfish.
The Tentacool and Tentacruel that had been on the brink of death—
Suddenly began to stir with life again.
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