Rowlet obediently dove into the water, and now it could finally catch fish to eat.
There was no way it could count on a certain someone to fish—he didn't even have money to buy fish.
Not long after Rowlet submerged itself, it suddenly spotted an enormous red Pokémon on the lakebed not far away, curled up tightly and fast asleep.
"Goo?"
It had never seen a Pokémon like this before. Then again, it hadn't seen many Pokémon to begin with—every day it was just dragged around by Lumiere, so its curiosity was easily piqued.
The Pokémon before it was sleeping soundly, and none of the other Pokémon nearby dared to approach, afraid of angering it.
But Rowlet wasn't afraid at all. It quietly swam over and gently tugged on the red whiskers.
When it realized there was no reaction, it mischievously grabbed the whiskers and tied them into a neat little bow…
"Goo~"
Rowlet was extremely satisfied with its handiwork. But just then, as the water shifted, the bow brushed twice against the Pokémon's nose.
A sneeze followed.
In an instant, the surrounding currents changed direction, forming an underwater vortex that sucked Rowlet right in.
But there was no way it would be defeated so easily. It flapped its wings with all its might and tried to swim forward.
It managed to grab hold of the Pokémon's body, but its size was still far too small. After accidentally tearing off a red scale, it was swept away by the current and vanished from sight.
Moments later, the lakebed returned to its calm state. That Pokémon was still sleeping comfortably, probably never dreaming that one of its scales had been plucked by a tiny creature.
And everything that had just happened was witnessed in full by a small blue round head hiding behind a rock not far away, peeking out in complete shock…
By the lakeside, who knew how much time had passed, Dawn walked over to Lumiere with a dejected expression, saying that she hadn't found any trace of Piplup on her side.
"It's fine. Rowlet already went into the lake to look," Lumiere replied.
Hearing this, Dawn asked in confusion, "Isn't Rowlet a Grass-type? How can it go into the water?"
"Don't worry. My Rowlet is good at everything."
After thinking for a moment, Dawn suddenly seemed to realize something and exclaimed in surprise, "Wait a second! You actually have a Rowlet?"
"You only noticed now? I've had it in the basket this whole time," Lumiere said, utterly speechless. Did his little princess really have such a weak presence?
"I thought it was a Snorlax plush."
"..."
Watching the two of them chatting by the lake, the person hiding in the distant bushes finally ran out of patience and stood up, walking toward them.
Lumiere, who was talking with Dawn about Rowlet, suddenly heard the sound of something pushing through the grass behind him.
He turned around warily—and froze. He had thought it might be a Pokémon, but instead it was a strange man wearing a jacket and sunglasses.
Before Lumiere could speak, the man with sunglasses laughed flippantly and said, "Yo, nice scenery. A little couple flirting by the lake, huh? Hahaha."
As soon as Dawn heard that, her face instantly flushed red. She turned around angrily and shouted, "What couple? I—"
Before she could finish, Lumiere grabbed her and whispered in her ear, "Be careful. Something's off about this guy!"
Hearing that, Dawn reacted as well. The man's outfit was indeed suspicious, and his face didn't exactly look like that of a good person.
"Oh? Pretty cautious, huh," the sunglasses man chuckled, deciding not to pretend anymore.
He pulled out three Poké Balls from his waist and casually played with them, then continued in a mocking tone, "If you don't want to go feed the fish, then you'd better obediently find Piplup for me. Otherwise…"
As he spoke, he released all of his Pokémon. Three flashes of red light appeared, and a Kecleon and two Ariados emerged at his side, all of them looking extremely vicious—clearly belonging to a seasoned veteran.
Seeing this, combined with what he had just said, Dawn suddenly seemed to realize something and asked in panic, "You're a Pokémon Hunter?!"
"Good that you know. Then I won't need to remind you again. Find Piplup, hand it over to me, and I'll let you both leave safely!"
Listening to the sunglasses man, Lumiere's expression grew increasingly grim. After living in this world for a month, he had learned a fair bit from the news.
So-called Pokémon Hunters were criminals who captured rare Pokémon and sold them as commodities on the black market for huge profits.
These people would stop at nothing for money—some of them even stole Pokémon from trainers!
It was said that a few years ago they had been extremely rampant, giving Officer Jennys massive headaches, until the emergence of the Villain Mutual Aid Association.
Under the coordinated efforts of a group of like-minded individuals, criminals were arrested in batches and sent straight to prison. Only then was their arrogance greatly curbed—but that didn't mean they had completely disappeared.
"This situation just got really bad…"
Lumiere hadn't expected to run into a Pokémon Hunter. Taking a quick look at the data, all three of the opponent's Pokémon were quite strong.
And now that Rowlet wasn't by his side, how was he supposed to fight? Was he supposed to turn into some kind of super Sinnoh man and brawl barehanded with Poké Balls?
Seeing that neither of them moved, the sunglasses man lost patience and shouted coldly, "Stop dawdling. My time is limited too. Hurry up and find Piplup!"
Dawn looked angry, as if she wanted to say something, but when she saw Ariados approaching, she could only quiet down obediently.
Then the sunglasses man suddenly added, "If I remember correctly, you've already searched all around here and didn't find any trace of Piplup. That means it's probably in the water, right?"
He seemed very satisfied with his own deduction and continued, "So, one of you goes into the water to look, and the other stays here so they don't try to run."
Hearing this, Lumiere didn't hesitate. He turned to Dawn and said directly, "You go down. I'll stay here and deal with him."
"Eh?" Dawn froze for a moment, not expecting him to give her the chance. After all, in a sense, this was an opportunity to escape.
Lumiere hadn't thought that far. He was simply worried that leaving Dawn—a girl—here might put her in danger. It would be better for him to stay instead.
Besides, once Rowlet came out of the lake, he was confident he could take on all three Pokémon by himself. With Dawn around, it would actually be harder to protect her.
However, Dawn suddenly showed a resolute expression and said firmly, "Don't worry. I'm not going to abandon you and run away!"
With that, she didn't even take off her clothes and dove straight into the lake.
Lumiere fell into thought over her words, feeling like this kid might have misunderstood something.
But just then, a white thread shot out and instantly wrapped Lumiere up into a cocoon, dragging him away and hanging him from a nearby tree by Ariados, like a Frieza dangling from a branch.
The sunglasses man then said, "Since one of you went down, you can stay right here. If that little girl doesn't come back within fifteen minutes… you know what I mean."
"I don't."
"Still playing tough, huh? Let me ask you—where did that Snorlax plush on your bike go? Why couldn't I find it?" The sunglasses man had planned to take that plush and mount it on his motorcycle.
"Plush?"
Hearing this, Lumiere finally understood—this guy had been tailing him the whole time. He was probably already being watched the moment he left the Pokémon Research Lab.
"I threw the plush into the lake. I heard there's a red Gyarados around here, so I wanted to see if I could fish one up."
Lumiere smiled faintly and continued bluffing…