Chapter 602: With Alice

"Baimu? Where's Baimu?"

"That Coordinator Trainer who said he'd take first place?"

"Ah! Baimu-kun! I'm your fan!"

A single sentence from Alice threw the crowd, which had just finished eating melons and was about to disperse, into an uproar once more.

The people present looked around — some pleasantly surprised, some curious, some even screaming in excitement, while others simply looked in the direction she was calling out to.

But all they saw was a panicked green-haired boy.

Their gazes shifted accordingly.

The panic on Manchu's face vanished. He tilted his head without a flicker of expression and said, "Baimu! That girl is coming straight over!"

From the shadow beneath his feet came Baimu's somewhat muffled voice.

"It's fine, just walk away — go somewhere with no people."

Hearing this, Manchu glanced at the brown-skinned girl surrounded by people asking where Baimu was, hesitated for a moment, then turned and hurried off.

Alice, busy explaining, watched Manchu leave. Rather urgently, she squeezed through the people pestering her and suddenly leapt up. Amid the crowd's exclamations, she grabbed the trunk of a tall tropical plant used as a roadside fence and swiftly climbed to the very top.

Immediately after.

Like Tarzan, she nimbly leapt to the top of another tropical plant, then repeated the trick to keep jumping forward. In no time at all she was far away.

The crowd stared dumbfounded at Alice's retreating back.

"I-Is this girl a Slakoth evolution or something?"

Even a Slakoth isn't that agile!

The noisy crowd scattered; unable to find Baimu and the others, they naturally lost any reason to stay.

Elsewhere.

Manchu ducked into the Lin Zili at the edge of the venue, and only when there was no one nearby did he shout at the shadow beneath his feet: "Baimu? Baimu!"

"Poof!"

Baimu poked his head out from the shadow. From the neck down, his body was inside the Gengar's mouth, stretched to its absolute limit — the sight was utterly horrifying.

He said, "No human can stand being in there. Claustrophobia is about to kick in."

Manchu was at a loss for words, and silently helped him out of the Gengar's mouth.

Once his feet touched the ground, the latter felt as if he had finally returned to the human world. He casually rolled his shoulders and said, "Last time I went in, the experience was too short — I never realized how terrifying it was in there."

Gengar fundamentally doesn't need to breathe, so even if it deliberately inhaled into its body, the air Baimu felt was still so thin that he was forced to hold his breath.

Add to that the pitch-black space that let in no light at all, where up and down were indistinguishable and his feet couldn't touch anything solid…

It was practically a void.

A short time was fine, but any longer and his mind would go blank from lack of oxygen. No wonder there are terrifying urban legends like "the world after death."

"Still, I really have to thank you for your quick thinking! If we'd been surrounded in that spot, heaven knows when we could have escaped."

Baimu patted Gengar on the head.

The latter had been feeling dejected about not giving its Trainer a pleasant experience, but upon hearing this immediately broke into a smile. "Hehehehe~"

Without a doubt, it had been Gengar's sudden whim to swallow its Trainer into its belly that had let them escape safely.

Having departed with a flick of its sleeve, Gengar melted into the shadows.

At the same time.

Alice, who had tracked them all the way here, spotted the two of them. She approached happily, and this time she'd learned her lesson and didn't shout.

"Sorry, sorry! I didn't expect you to be so popular~"

She put one hand together in a half-bow, closed her right eye slightly in an apologetic gesture, and said with a grin, "Long time no see! Baimu!"

Baimu tugged at the corner of his mouth and said with mock sarcasm, "It really has been a while, Alice. The moment we meet you hand me a big present — very on-brand for you."

Alice put her hands on her hips with full confidence: "I already apologized, didn't I! I didn't expect you to be so childish in a place like this!"

Baimu replied, "If I were really childish, I'd definitely grab you and give you a beating."

Seeing the two of them go back and forth as if the air were thick with gunpowder, Manchu timidly raised both hands and tried to mediate: "D-Don't fight, please… talk it out properly…"

But no sooner had he said this than Alice burst out laughing with a "pfft," and Baimu's lips also curved up into a smile.

"No, no, we always used to talk like this — we're not fighting."

The brown-skinned girl extended a hand to Manchu and said openly, "I'm Alice, a Dragon Tamer from the Unova region! Nice to meet you!"

Manchu was a little flattered. He reached out and gave her a light handshake: "I'm Manchu, I live in Orange City. Duoduozhi Sect."

After they finished introducing themselves.

True to expectations, Alice's gaze drifted to Baimu's shoulders. Her eyes burned with intensity as she said, "I think I smell Dragon-type Pokémon!"

"Worthy of the Dragon Radar — you didn't smell wrong."

The latter woke up the Dreepy siblings, who had been sleeping invisibly on his shoulders. The two little ones materialized in a daze, their faces still bearing traces of sleepiness.

Alice excitedly let out a low-pitched squeal: "So cute! What kind of Pokémon are they?"

"Dreepy. Dragon-type Pokémon from the Galar region. Those two are twins." Baimu glanced without a flicker of expression at the empty space behind him.

As expected, Dragapult had hidden itself.

That guy was most afraid of someone like Alice, who came with a built-in "social butterfly" aura in front of Dragon-type Pokémon — how would it dare show its face carelessly?

But for the younger Dreepy, meeting Alice was the equivalent of a social butterfly gathering.

So it very smoothly flung itself into her arms, and she didn't even have time to ask Baimu to let her hold these two Dragon-types she had never seen before.

Then the older Dreepy, quite curious about the gentle aura about Alice, joined in as well.

"Hahahaha, so cute."

Alice was overjoyed. The skill that let her communicate heart-to-heart with Dragon-type Pokémon activated as if it were a passive ability, and a golden light shone from her palm.

Manchu was rather astonished. "This is—"

"Alice's special ability lets her communicate without barriers with Dragon-type Pokémon and sense their current feelings." All Baimu gave a brief explanation, his expression somewhat complicated.

He had clearly wanted to learn this from the start — so why had it ended up like that?

A few seconds later.

Alice finished communicating with the Druddigon siblings, her eyes full of tenderness, and said softly, "What a lively pair of twins — I'm so glad I met All Baimu! Right?"

The Druddigon sister looked at her curiously, and upon hearing her words, nodded happily.

The journey to search for her brother had been far too long, but she didn't find it painful, because not only had she found her brother again, she had also encountered the greatest fortune of her life — All Baimu.

The Druddigon brother saw his sister nod, so he nodded along too.

Alice smiled charmingly, her gaze sweeping the surroundings as she asked, "I also smelled a scent~"

"Stop sniffing — it's not good with strangers, and your enthusiasm has scared it." All Baimu pressed down her restless shoulder.

"Is that so…"

Alice's eyes held no shortage of disappointment.

It was getting late.

When All Baimu learned that Alice was also staying at the Celestic Hotel, he prepared to bring the two of them to introduce to Miss Liuqi and the others, and have dinner together along the way.

The Celestic Conference guidebook recorded quite a few shops he was very interested in.

Alice and Mitsumi naturally had no objections.

——

The next morning.

All Baimu finished washing up and knocked on Mitsumi's door.

"Don't tell me you didn't sleep all night."

Looking at Mitsumi, who was already fully dressed and ready to go, he couldn't help but furrow his brow.

The latter fidgeted with his index fingers in front of his stomach and said sheepishly, "I slept for a little bit…"

All Baimu said helplessly, "What's there to be nervous about for a jog? Or did my words put a lot of pressure on you?"

"No, I'm worried my performance won't be good enough."

Mitsumi's voice gradually grew smaller.

Although this boy spoke softly, he had one good quality — he dared to speak up and wouldn't bottle things up.

"So what if your performance isn't good? I never forced you to run ten kilometers in ten minutes in one go, and I won't scold or look down on you if you can't. Relax, don't put too much burden on yourself."

All Baimu patted his shoulder. "Call out Gallade too. For jogging, you can totally think of it like how the two of us were wandering around looking for battle spots yesterday — look at the scenery, see the lively sights of Celestic Town."

"Mm…"

Mitsumi nodded and called Gallade out of the Poké Ball.

With a Pokémon present, this guy was indeed much more relaxed.

The Pokémon All Baimu chose as his jogging companion was Porygon2. After the latter's legs transformed into wheel shapes, it looked just like a toy car, which Mitsumi found quite novel.

The two went downstairs and met Alice in the lobby, who had also come out for morning exercise.

"Yahoo~ Good morning~"

She waved, and upon hearing their plans, quickly joined the morning jog group.

The three had barely run a few steps out the door when they encountered Brock, who had been stabbed in the rear by his Croagunk and was twitching on the ground, with Officer Jenny standing beside him looking quite helpless.

All Baimu's mouth twitched, and he asked Officer Jenny what had happened.

As he expected, Brock, who was always making advances in his daily life, had been backstabbed by his own Pokémon Croagunk, leaving Jenny unsure how to handle it.

He decisively took the initiative to pull Brock up and drag him away.

However, the latter hadn't gotten up early in the morning to flirt — rather, a few dishes from last night had piqued Brock's interest, and he was preparing to go to the morning market to buy some ingredients to recreate them himself and make them for his family when he got back.

The result was that the moment he saw Jenny, he lost all sense of direction.

Discovering the morning jog group had grown to four, All Baimu thought for a moment and simply woke up Miss Liuqi and Dawn as well, asking if they wanted to join the morning jog group.

—They actually agreed.

Because the two of them had learned last night that All Baimu was going to become a Torch Runner, and feeling honored by it, they planned to run alongside him for a short stretch at the time to cheer him on.

The morning jog would serve as practice in advance.

And so.

The morning jog group expanded to six.

All Baimu had thought the number of members in this little group would stop there, but unexpectedly, while running along the less crowded coastline, he and Miss Liuqi were recognized by other early-morning exercisers.

Those people tried to chat with the two and get an autograph or something, but were friendly enough not to disturb his morning jog, simply silently following behind.

The morning jog group's numbers super-doubled.

That wasn't all — some others who hadn't recognized or simply didn't know All Baimu, but thought the morning jog group looked interesting, inexplicably came to join the fun too.

The morning jog group's numbers epic-doubled.

Just like that.

The people and Pokémon behind All Baimu grew more and more numerous, forming a beautiful scenic line along the coast.

Mitsumi, mixed in among the large group, looked somewhat blankly at the crowd that had appeared behind him at some unknown point, not understanding what was going on.

Where did all these people come from?

But he quickly became immersed in the joy of finding that his run wasn't tiring at all.

The small bit of worry in his heart had now completely vanished.

Miss Liuqi looked back at the crowd, her face full of pride at how far her good disciple All Baimu's influence reached.

Dawn was panting — she discovered that her stamina was actually inferior to Miss Liuqi's… and also inferior to Piplup! The little penguin's legs were short, but it ran no slower at all!

"Ahh — I can't accept this!"

Recovered from his paralysis, Xiaogang was calm and composed — he was, like Xiaozhi, a man capable of high-speed movement!

What's a mere morning jog to him?

No one knew how much time had passed.

All Baimu stopped, and the large group of people behind him stopped along with him.

He turned his head with an embarrassed sweat, looking at the procession of at least a hundred people, very much wanting to know if these people had nothing better to do.

But before he could say anything, a microphone suddenly popped out from beside him, squeezing in front of him:

"Hello! Mr. Baimu! I'm a morning reporter from the Caiyou Television Station! May I ask, you led so many people on a jog along the coast — are you doing it as a Torch Runner, to urge people to exercise diligently?"

Caiyou Television Station?

Where did you pop out from!

Baimu looked at the female reporter before him, speechless, and the cameraman behind her carrying the equipment — from their panting appearance, they had probably followed along for a stretch as well.

"…You could say that."

He didn't tear down her framing; essentially, his original purpose had been to bring Manju out for a run, so the latter would develop a sense of independent exercise.

The reasoning was about the same.

The female reporter's eyes lit up at his words. "Just as I thought! You truly live up to your reputation as a dazzling new star entering the competitive battling world! Always setting an example for us young people! I'm sure you'll achieve victory at the Caiyou Tournament… ah, no, a good result."

Under the repeated meaningful glances from the cameraman, the female reporter hastily corrected herself.

The television station could promote the contestants, but it could not explicitly declare its support for any one contestant to win; the female reporter in this interview did not represent herself alone.

Baimu listened with a face full of dark lines, and hurriedly modestly expressed that he looked forward to working hard, and looked forward to meeting powerful opponents at the tournament.

A perfectly standard answer.

The female reporter was about to say more, but the others who had grown impatient pushed forward, surrounding All Baimu and Miss Liuqi tightly.

One group of people shouted "Baimu-kun," another group shouted "Liuqi."

The scene was exceptionally chaotic.

The other few had long been pushed to the edges, watching this scene with varied expressions.

Manju was afraid — his social skills were lacking, and he didn't know how to deal with so many fans.

Alice was excited — she, who aimed for the championship, understood that the attention a regional champion received would only be greater than All Baimu's and Miss Liuqi's, but she didn't care.

Xiaoguang was curious — she wanted to know if she were in Miss Liuqi's place, could she handle it as skillfully as her? She probably could!

Xiaogang… he was a tiny bit envious, because among the people surrounding All Baimu there were many pretty big sisters.

This farce-like morning jog lasted for two hours.

Only then did All Baimu and Miss Liuqi regain their freedom and manage to return to the hotel to rest.

More and more people were gathering in Caiyou City, and more and more people recognized them.

To avoid a similar situation recurring, over the next few days, everyone stayed remarkably well-behaved in the hotel, waiting for the tournament to truly begin.

Finally.

With a text message from Officer Jenny, reminding All Baimu to arrive on time to receive the Torch.

The Caiyou Tournament officially kicked off!