Chapter 586: Tricking Team Rocket

The scene before him was a little delicate.

Especially after Xiaozhi and Hikari shared a perfectly-timed high-five.

*Smack. *

He excitedly threw himself into catching up with his old partner, oblivious to everything else.

Citron and the others wore blank expressions, while Serena kept her eyes locked on Hikari, who was beaming as she hugged Pikachu. Her small fists clenched, her lips nibbled lightly, and she didn't even notice she was doing it.

"What's the matter?"

Sensitive to the atmosphere, Hu Pa scratched his head.

Obviously someone's jealous.

All Baimu snickered to himself — to be honest, he hadn't expected the reunion scene to be this bizarre either.

He could only say that Hikari and Xiaozhi really were easy to misunderstand, especially that wordless tacit understanding of theirs, clasping hands the instant they met.

Although they themselves believed the friendship between them was built on pearl-like memories, unbreakable as diamond.

But in the eyes of bystanders — especially Serena's — the two of them clearly gave off a "no one else allowed in" aura, and Pikachu's unusually warm attitude toward Hikari also stirred a confused, faintly sour feeling in her heart.

Without a doubt.

The sense of crisis made her jealous of Hikari.

Eureka, with Dedenne on her head, couldn't contain her curiosity. She first greeted Hu Pa with a bright smile, then sidled up beside All Baimu and asked in a low voice:

"Big brother All Baimu, who are they?"

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to him.

Apart from Citron and the others who had traveled with Xiaozhi, present were also the portly Tierno, who had set out at the same time as Serena; the brown-skinned girl with twin-tails, Shauna; and the photo-obsessed Trevor.

Sawyer, who had lost in the semifinals in the original storyline, was nowhere to be seen — presumably nursing his wounds in some corner of the venue. Falling one step short of victory was simply too great a blow.

All Baimu smiled at her and said, "Rather than asking me, why not ask them directly? Hey! Xiaozhi! Aren't you going to introduce everyone?"

The three who had been lost in sentiment quickly came back to themselves.

Brock was the first to react, and said apologetically, "Sorry about that, everyone. My name is Brock — I traveled with Xiaozhi in the past."

Hikari said with a smile, "I'm Hikari, same as Brock. And this little one is Piplup~"

"Pip-pip~!"

Piplup raised its little wings, brimming with energy.

Hearing this, Citron and Eureka stepped forward. The former laughed and said, "I see — so you're Brock. I'm Citron. Xiaozhi mentioned you constantly during our travels, praising your cooking."

"Hahaha, I've heard about you from All Baimu — a pleasure to finally meet you."

The two support-staff members beamed at each other.

"Hello, big sister Hikari~ Is this little one Piplup? So cute~"

True to form, Eureka's focus was on the Pokémon. She blinked her big, sparkling eyes and asked, "Can I hold it?"

Hikari glanced down at Piplup, and the latter gave a "pip-pip" and leapt straight over.

"Hahaha—"

Eureka was small but strong. She hugged Piplup and spun around once to bleed off the momentum, then immediately started nuzzling its cheek, giggling, "So cold and cool~ so comfy~"

Tierno and the others crowded around as well.

Only Serena hesitated, her expression uncertain. It wasn't that she disliked Hikari — she simply didn't know how to approach a girl who seemed so unusually close to Xiaozhi.

"Don't go making enemies for yourself out of nowhere. Go talk to her and you'll see."

All Baimu whispered in her ear.

Serena turned her head in surprise to look at him. After a brief moment of thought, she nodded seriously, took a deep breath, and walked over toward Hikari.

Speaking reasonably.

Many anime fans consider the relationship between Hikari and Xiaozhi to be "more than friends, less than lovers." But regardless of whether that's true, given that even a block of wood can be a massive obstacle to romance—

What are the odds of two blocks of wood developing feelings beyond friendship?

The answer is—

Definitely not as high as the probability of Serena, with her unmistakable romantic signals, pushing hard and reaching a happy ending.

But who knows what the future holds?

During the journey, there basically weren't many female characters around Xiaozhi, and the reappearance of Hikari and Serena didn't stir up much romantic atmosphere either.

Of course, All Baimu didn't particularly care who Xiaozhi ended up marrying in the end — he had just happened to run into this delightful scene and wanted to join in the fun.

He watched Serena, who was chatting with Hikari, gradually break into a brilliant smile, and was deeply moved.

Youth really is something…

Suddenly.

He walked to the main door and yanked it open.

"Ah!"

"What's going on, meow!"

Accompanied by a chorus of startled cries, two people dressed as reporters and one rather bizarre-looking being tumbled into the room.

Everyone looked over in confusion, and someone asked, "You are…"

"Reporters, reporters~"

"Sorry for interrupting you~"

"That's how it is, meow."

The red-haired reporter hurriedly explained, the blue-haired reporter apologized sheepishly, and the bizarre being laughed it off.

The three were about to retreat from the room just like that.

And then.

They caught sight of All Baimu standing by the door with a kindly smile on his face, and instantly froze in place, deep despair surfacing on their faces.

"…Sunosi?"

The Indeedee bundled inside the clothing let out a puzzled cry.

"You all chat, I'll go have a little talk with them outside."

All Baimu hooked his left arm around Musashi, his right arm around Kojiro, gave Meowth—who was sweating bullets—a look, and walked out with a parting smile and wave to the others.

The group exchanged uncertain glances.

"Is All Baimu close with those two reporters?"

"We…don't know, actually."

Outside the door.

In an empty corridor.

Kojiro, Musashi, Meowth, and Indeedee knelt obediently in seiza, not daring to so much as draw a heavy breath in front of All Baimu.

"I believe I told you not to let me see you again, didn't I?"

The faint voice, like murmurs from the Sanzu River, sent shivers through the two humans and two Pokémon.

Without the slightest hesitation, they threw themselves into full prostration.

"Gomenasai! Please forgive us one more time!"

Facing this demon who held their lifelines in his grasp, the three Rocket members truly couldn't muster any thought of resistance—obediently yielding was their only option.

All Baimu gazed at these rare talents and oddities, falling into thought.

Looking back now, his earlier handling to keep them from causing trouble had been rather crude; the important leverage could be put to far more meaningful use.

He spoke: "Forgive you? It's not out of the question, but you'll have to make me a deal."

"A deal?"

The trio raised their heads and exchanged glances.

"That's right. You Rocket members love sneaking into other regions to expand your influence, don't you?" All Baimu picked Meowth up, gently scratching his chin as the latter wore a terrified expression.

The practiced motion made Meowth unconsciously feel comfortable and relax, but the unease in his heart made him tense up again—the conflicting emotions made Meowth feel like he was going mad.

"D-don't do that, meow… don't…"

Meowth pawed at empty air like he was kneading.

All Baimu ignored him and went on: "I come from Aore. You probably don't know it, but your boss Giovanni has likely heard of it. Recently, things there have been changing fast, and before long a League will be established.

"I hope that if Giovanni plans to expand Rocket's influence into the Aore region, you'll volunteer to take on that mission—"

"You want us to betray the boss? I'm telling you, that's absolutely impossible!"

Musashi leapt up from the ground in a flash, waving her hand in righteous refusal.

He smiled, pulled out his phone from his pocket, and murmured, "What's the phone number for the Pokémon Center in Happy Town again?"

"Sorry, I was just kidding."

Musashi dropped to her knees on the spot.

Kojiro, unable to stand by any longer, stood up and shouted: "Using other people's weaknesses to threaten them! How despicable!"

"Hu Pa! I'm looking for a box full of rare bottle caps—"

"Sorry, I spoke too loudly."

Kojiro dropped to his knees as well.

He could hardly imagine that the other not only knew he was hiding from his fiancée Lumelia, but also knew he collected bottle caps.

Indeedee stared at the two in shock, then looked at the half-defeated Meowth in All Baimu's arms, his expression utterly horrified. "Sunosi—"

"Hahaha, don't be so tense. I have no intention of hurting you, nor any thought of making trouble for Rocket—everything is just a precaution."

At least, not for now.

All Baimu said inwardly, then said aloud: "We can absolutely establish a cooperative relationship. What does your boss crave?"

"…World domination?" Kojiro ventured.

"You could put it that way, but I think right now he probably craves money more, doesn't he?"

He looked Kojiro in the eye and said in an enticing tone: "You always try to steal all kinds of Pokémon to offer up to Giovanni, dreaming you'll be useful to him, but in the end Giovanni will definitely just sell those Pokémon for cash."

Rocket generally steals and snatches other people's Pokémon to sell.

The Pokémon they use themselves usually come from Rocket's original breeding house, to prevent Pokémon from suddenly turning on them; the capsule machines stocked with all kinds of powerful Pokémon along their journey come from that original house.

You know that too?!

Kojiro and Musashi were nearly stunned out of their wits; they even briefly suspected he was a Rocket member too, here to con them.

"In that case, why not skip straight to the selling stage? Aore is a virgin land waiting to be built. If you became the branch heads there, I could easily introduce business to you. The annual revenue you turn over to Giovanni might even surpass what you make in the Johto region…"

All Baimu's voice was low but brimming with temptation: "When that day comes, you'll be the ones who stand second only to the boss in all of Rocket—great figures with shining futures!

"Kojiro, you could build a career that makes your family look at you differently, and your engagement would naturally be yours to decide; Musashi could become a world-famous actress, a global star, with countless people cheering and applauding for you; Meowth, you'd surely become Giovanni's favorite Pokémon, and Madonna would surely have a change of heart; Indeedee, you could bring your first love to your side…"

"Gulp…" ×4

Two humans and two Pokémon swallowed in unison.

If before, All Baimu had been a demon in the Rocket trio's eyes, now he had transformed into a beguiling devil.

A devil they both loved and hated.

Musashi forcibly suppressed her fantasy of becoming the world's number-one actress, snorted to psych herself up, and said: "You can say all you want, but I don't believe you have no ulterior motive against Rocket."

"Y-yeah!" Kojiro chimed in.

All Baimu set Meowth down, shrugged, and said: "My motive is very simple—I just don't want Rocket causing trouble in Aore. It's not that I have no way to deal with you at all; I just find it troublesome, understand?"

He pulled the two up from the ground, amiably brushing the dust off them: "I have to admit, you Rocket folks are a tenacious organization, and I'm the kind of person who hates trouble most of all.

"Rather than letting you skulk around stabbing in the dark, why not try bringing you out into the open? After all, whoever makes the money, it gets made, right? Wouldn't you say?"

Kojirou and Musashi gave a slight nod.

"Of course, the premise for cooperation is that Baimu takes the initiative to have designs on Ohra. If you two are the ones egging him on to have designs on Ohra, then don't blame me for turning hostile without mercy—you can take this as a promise." Baimu said with a smile.

The two nodded again.

In fact.

Since Team Rocket had a company out in the open in Ohra, they would one hundred percent stir up trouble on the sly—completely unavoidable.

What he desired was nothing more than making the main person in charge of the Ohra region two idiots, so that locals in Ohra could gradually become core members of Team Rocket when 'recruiting' on the ground there.

As an organization that had developed in the Kanto region for decades, Team Rocket would probably find it very hard to break through from the outside; this thing might just achieve a 'scattered like stars across the sky' effect.

Since that was the case, he might as well try to disintegrate it from within.

The Ohra branch replacing the Johto branch could effectively help infiltrators rise to Team Rocket's core layer—by then, wouldn't they be able to do as they pleased?

But just as he'd told the Team Rocket trio, Baimu had to take the initiative to make trouble for Ohra before he would launch this plan on his end.

For now, it was merely planting chess pieces.

A certain past simulation had given Baimu inspiration on how to plant people inside Team Rocket and earn great merit.

"Then that's that. May we meet again if fate allows."

He waved at the Team Rocket trio and walked toward the room where Ash and the others were.

The corridor fell silent for a moment.

Kojirou and Musashi, upon confirming Baimu had really left, both breathed a sigh of relief and began discussing what the latter had just said.

Discussing the contents of the agreement, Musashi said smugly: "The more he doesn't want us to do something, the more we should do it. When the Ohra branch flourishes in the future, will it still be up to him?"

"Indeed… then should we inform Boss Baimu now?"

"No, hold our position."

Musashi felt wisdom had occupied the high ground: "That guy's a bit weird. Who knows, if we tell him he might really know. And our main goal right now is still catching Pikachu. As for the Ohra region, we can wait until Boss Baimu really has ideas before taking action—it's not too late. We can claim both merits together!"

"Well said, meow! I agree, meow!"

Meowth jumped up and down on the spot. The big pie Baimu had drawn was huge and fragrant, and it very much looked forward to the day it could live together with Madonna.

Before that truly happened, it didn't want any unnecessary disturbances.

"Sohnos!"

Wobbuffet nodded frantically in agreement.

Kojirou suddenly realized and couldn't help but praise: "As expected of the future Branch Chief Musashi! The world's number one female star!"

"Hmph! Branch Chief Kojirou sure knows how to talk. A promising future~ hehehe."

"Meowth is also a branch chief!"

"Sohnos!"

The Team Rocket trio plus one Wobbuffet looked up and began fantasizing about the wonderful future life, nearly drooling.

Little did they know abnormal ripples suddenly vibrated in the air.

"Rururu…"

The invisible Dragonite watched the few people and Pokémon grinning foolishly, not quite understanding why the trainer had it monitor these seemingly troubled fellows.

What are they being silly about?