January 22nd, weather sunny.
West of Twinleaf Town, the forest that has regained its vitality.
The Zangoose leader looked up at the Staraptor standing in the tree.
"Can the battle against the Seviper be moved up?"
Staraptor nodded.
"You decide the time."
The Zangoose leader sharpened its claws, looked at its clan with a fierce, scarred right eye, and then confirmed the time with Staraptor.
"This afternoon."
Staraptor glanced at the Zangoose leader, seemingly having already foreseen the outcome, nodded, and flew towards Twinleaf Town.
"You all get ready; Pokémon will come to pick you up this afternoon."
Watching Staraptor's departing figure, the Zangoose leader withdrew its gaze, gathered its clan, and explained the arrangements for this afternoon, and the Zangoose instantly became full of fighting spirit.
"This time, we absolutely cannot lose!"
Losing to the Seviper last time was simply a disgrace to their Family.
During this period, it had been leading its clan to train in the wild, all for the sake of revenge.
"Seviper—this time we'll beat you into useless snakes."
Breeding House.
Lucas sat in the rest area, reached out and grabbed the head of the Seviper leader; a slippery, cold sensation came from his hand.
This Seviper leader had been sparring with the Pokémon at the Breeding House or battling Pokémon in the forest almost every day since arriving, and although the win-loss ratio was fifty-fifty, the long-term beatings had given its body excellent training.
The three-meter-long body, its head currently being kneaded in his hand.
"Looking at it for a long time, Seviper actually feels quite cool, too."
Lucas let go after satisfying his craving for a pet, and said with a smile.
"Ma Ma."
"It's very resistant to beatings."
Machoke said from the side.
Every time this Seviper came to spar with it and Vex, it wouldn't give up unless it was knocked unconscious.
"You should know by now, right? The competition between you and the Zangoose has been moved up."
Seviper followed Lucas's gaze towards Staraptor; it didn't like Staraptor very much—or rather, the whole Seviper Family didn't like Staraptor much. It wasn't about personality clashes; it was just a simple dislike.
Every time it was stared at by Staraptor, its scalp would go numb.
Seviper looked at Lucas and nodded.
"I know, we won't lose."
Lucas looked at the scars on the Seviper's body. "Do your best. I believe that with the training from Machoke and the others, you all have become much stronger."
Seviper flicked its tail, indicating no problem.
"This afternoon, do you need some extra training? Machoke and Vex can help, or Staraptor and the others can too."
Hearing Lucas's suggestion, Seviper shook its head and refused without hesitation.
"That wouldn't be fair to them."
Seviper narrowed its scarlet snake eyes, a dangerous light flickering in them.
"I will use my own strength to lead them to defeat the Zangoose Family once again, and then I will tell them: You Zangoose will never be comparable to us Seviper."
"Hiss..."
I always feel that if you say this, it will trigger some bad things.
But thinking that the deadly rivalry between the two clans is engraved in their genes, the fact that they can follow the rules and battle properly now is already a very good way to handle it.
"Go prepare. We will call you once we have the venue ready."
Lucas waved his hand, and Seviper slithered away from the rest area.
"Little Tomoyo, who do you think will win this time?"
Shauna held a new flavor of sausage, asking Tomoyo who was sitting next to her while gnawing on it.
Tomoyo shook her head. "I didn't see it last time, so I don't know. But shouldn't the Seviper win? They look so scary."
Little Tomoyo was also holding a sausage, eating it in small bites, and then answered Shauna's question.
"Gen gengar."
Gengar passed through the wall, floated to the rest area, looked at Lucas, and made an OK sign.
"The venue is ready."
"Is that so? So fast?"
Lucas stood up, walked out, and came to the side of the battle venue that Gengar and the others had set up to check the field.
The four corners of the field had sticks inserted, and then the field was surrounded by ropes. A spectator area had also been cleared around it to make it convenient for Officer Jenny and her colleagues from the police station to come and watch.
Lucas took a closer look; it had quite the style of a world fighting tournament.
"Very well done. Now we just need to wait for the afternoon."
Lucas didn't find any issues that needed improvement, so he returned to the rest area of the Breeding House and lay down.
"Manager, we're back."
Mr. and Mrs. Fujino walked into the Breeding House and called out to Lucas who was lying in the rest area.
"Mom, Dad, you're back."
Seeing her parents return, Shauna ran over quickly and threw herself into their arms.
Mrs. Fujino gently squatted down and picked up Shauna. Lucas also sat up. "Is the wedding over?"
Mr. and Mrs. Fujino had gone to Veilstone City to attend a wedding a few days ago. Because Shauna didn't want to go, they left Shauna at the Breeding House to help Lucas handle matters at the Breeding House.
"It's over. We even brought gifts for you and Gengar and the others."
Mr. Fujino carried the gift box in his hand to the rest area and placed it on the ground.
"Gen gengar."
There are gifts; I'm coming.
Gengar opened the gift and found some snacks it had never seen before, so it happily opened the packaging and started eating without ceremony.
"I saw that a battle venue seems to have been set up outside. Is there any event?"
Mr. Fujino remembered the battle venue he saw at the entrance of the Breeding House and asked curiously.
After Lucas told them about what happened in the past two days, Mr. Fujino suddenly realized. "So today is the second battle between Seviper and Zangoose?"
Lucas hummed in agreement.
"Zangoose and Seviper, huh..."
Mr. Fujino couldn't help but sigh when mentioning these two types of Pokémon. "I don't know how long this battle has been going on. I don't know when they will be able to coexist peacefully."
That probably won't happen.
It's their nature. If they meet in the wild, there will only be one result between the two: either you die or I live. That he could let them use battles to resolve problems was only achieved with the help of Cynthia in the beginning.
After eating lunch, Lucas checked the time; it was almost time, so he used the rotom phone to call the Cottage.
After hanging up the phone, Gothitelle floated out of the Cottage and then floated straight towards the forest in the west.
After finding the Zangoose Family, Gothitelle landed on the ground and looked at the Zangoose leader.
"Gothitelle."
The Zangoose leader nodded. Seeing this, Gothitelle floated up and floated towards the Breeding House.
Seeing this, the Zangoose leader followed closely with the remaining Zangoose.
When passing through Twinleaf Town, many residents were startled, thinking that the Zangoose had come in to cause trouble, until they saw that Gothitelle was leading them, and only then did they feel relieved.
It could be said that more people in Twinleaf Town remembered Gothitelle than remembered Lucas.
Some residents stopped, looked at this group of Zangoose who were rushing along, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "Where are they going?"
The Zangoose followed the agreement Lucas had made with them back then: they would no longer cause trouble in human towns, nor would they attack humans for no reason, so at this time they were just following behind Gothitelle, rushing towards the Breeding House.
When passing through traffic lights, they would stop and wait for the red light to pass and the green light to turn on before continuing on their way.
"Did something happen again?"
The residents of Twinleaf Town kept guessing.
There were also Trainers from other regions who had just gotten off the boat at the harbor today, and they were extremely surprised to see this scene.
"Are the people here not afraid of Zangoose hurting people?"
In their impression, Zangoose were not gentle Pokémon.
At this time, a Trainer who had witnessed the battle between Zangoose and Seviper at the Breeding House remembered something and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: "Could it be that the day for them to battle with Seviper has arrived?"
Once the words were spoken, many people remembered the scene they had seen that time.
"No, I have to follow and take a look."
Watching the fun is human nature.
More and more people followed behind the Zangoose and ran towards the Breeding House.
Some people who didn't know what was going on grabbed people running towards the Breeding House and asked what happened. After the person being grabbed explained, the person who asked also joined the main force.
There were more and more people, forming a long line.
Lucas, who was standing at the entrance of the Breeding House, looked at the line that he couldn't see the end of, and his nose twitched involuntarily.
Then he entrusted Luxray, Heracross, and Pinsir, the reliable Pokémon of the Breeding House, to maintain order.
The Zangoose leader came to the entrance of the Breeding House and stopped. It looked at the Seviper who were already waiting by the battle venue. The boiling blood in its body made it pant heavily, wishing it could pounce up now and tear this group of Seviper apart.
The Zangoose behind it were the same, each one constantly growling, trying to restrain the impulse from their bloodline.
The situation with the Seviper was the same; the scales on their bodies were bristling, heads lowered, tongues flicking, tails glowing with purple light, constantly slapping the ground.
"Hiss... Hiss..."
The Seviper were desperately suppressing the impulse from their bloodline, constantly making hissing sounds.
Above them, the invisible Latias was staring at them, as well as the Staraptor in the tree, the Vespiquen, and most importantly, there was also a Gothitelle with cold eyes and full of oppressive force.
"Lucas, is today the battle between Zangoose and Seviper?"
A Trainer asked Lucas. Lucas nodded. "That's right. Please follow the Pokémon of our Breeding House to a safe viewing area to watch. If you need drinks and snacks, you can also ask our Breeding House's little managers—Little Shauna and Little Tomoyo—to purchase them."
"Don't worry." "Is Little Shauna selling drinks and snacks again this time?" "Little Shauna, you're getting cuter and cuter."
"..."
"How is it going?"
Officer Jenny came to Lucas's side, patted his shoulder, and asked.
"It looks like they can barely hold themselves back anymore. If you had arrived any later, they might have just started fighting already."
Lucas looked at the restless Zangoose and Seviper and spoke.
"There was no help for it. We had to arrange the duty roster for the town before we could come. Let's get started right away."
Officer Jenny watched the Zangoose and Seviper, all of whom were trembling.
"It's good to let them vent a little earlier."
Lucas hummed in acknowledgment, then took Ninetales and Gengar to the space between the Seviper and Zangoose groups.
At this moment, a Zangoose with bloodshot eyes couldn't hold back and wanted to lunge out. Just as it began to move, it was forced back by a cold glare.
"Shh." Try moving again.
Multicolored flames began to erupt from Ninetales's fur.
The Zangoose leader turned around and slapped that Zangoose.
"I know you can't hold back anymore, so I don't intend to say much. You understand our rules, right?"
Zangoose: No killing blows (Roar.)
Seviper: Stop when it's enough (Hiss~)
Seeing this, Lucas nodded with satisfaction. "In that case, select your fighters. Today, you can properly vent."
"Roar." Thanks.
The Zangoose's sound carried the noise of teeth grinding.
"Hiss~" You losers, are you ready to lose to us again?
"Roar." I hope that during this time, you haven't only improved your trash-talking.
"Hiss~" Why don't you try and see?
They turned their heads to choose the members who should participate this time.
Compared to killing the other side, they now felt that stepping on their opponents in front of everyone and the other Pokémon was more satisfying than ending their lives.
Gengar transformed, putting on a little hat, holding a whistle in its mouth, and raising two small flags in its hands.
Today is Referee Gengar~
Before the battle even started, the atmosphere in the spectator stands was already heating up.
"Come to think of it, hasn't it been a long time since we saw activities at the Breeding House?"
"Yeah, there were no activities for the entire winter. I was bored to death."
"It was fortunate that Lucas opened the Breeding House delivery service during the winter, which provided us with great convenience."
"I can't wait for the first event of spring at the Breeding House."
The audience gradually split into two factions, one favoring Zangoose and the other favoring Seviper, cheering for the group they supported.
After both sides decided on the order of appearance, Lucas nodded. A Zangoose instantly jumped onto the field, staring fixedly at the Seviper crawling up opposite it.
Gengar's whistle blew.
The Zangoose's claws glowed with white light as it lunged fiercely at the Seviper.
The Seviper didn't dodge either, opening its fangs and biting toward the incoming Zangoose.
The battle between Zangoose and Seviper had no dodging, only fighting.
It was a contest of will and strength.
The Seviper's body was covered in long, deep wounds, terrifying to behold.
Meanwhile, the Zangoose's face was stained purple, and it was swaying unsteadily.
The cheering from below was endless as Lucas watched the battle on the field.
He couldn't help but sigh.
Natural enemies, truly natural enemies... It really is a fight to the death.
But fortunately, he could control them.
In the first battle, both sides lost the ability to fight simultaneously.
Machoke and Vex, acting as medical staff, immediately ran onto the field, then grabbed the fallen Zangoose and Seviper and ran toward the temporary treatment area not far away.
Officer Joy and Blissey had long been prepared for treatment.
The battle did not stop for a moment.
Seviper and Zangoose took the field together, only to be grabbed by Machoke and Vex and thrown toward the medical area.
The final battle was between the two leaders.
Lucas was tired of standing, so he simply sat on Ninetales's back, watching the battle on the field.
"Seviper, let's go!"
"Zangoose, you must win this time!"
"Beep!"
The Zangoose leader quickly approached the Seviper leader, its polished, razor-sharp claws striking from both sides toward the Seviper leader.
The Seviper raised its tail high, a purple glow appearing at the tip, and then whipped it down toward the Zangoose.
The two leaders used their strongest moves on the battle field, trading blow for blow.
Relying on the "Toxic Boost" ability, the Zangoose put itself into a poisoned state, increasing the power of its physical moves and forcing the Seviper to retreat step by step.
But at the same time, it was constantly enduring the pain brought by the poison.
The audience below began to quiet down.
"Roar!"
The Zangoose stood up unsteadily, using all its strength to make its claws grow huge, and then rushed toward the Seviper.
"Roar!"
"This time, I absolutely cannot lose!!!"
The Seviper also raised its tail.
Have you ever endured a punch that could shatter your bones? Have you ever been flung around like a spicy snack strip? Have you ever taken a Brave Bird that made your internal organs shift? Have you been kicked by a Double Kick? Have you been hit by an attack? Have you been slashed by a massive Leaf Blade?
What makes you think you won't lose! Tell me! You! What makes you think that!!
"Hiss!!!"
The Seviper was slashed by sharp claws from its eye all the way to its abdomen, while its tail slammed hard onto the top of the Zangoose's head, smashing it into the ground.
The Zangoose tried to struggle and climb out of the pit, but its consciousness was becoming increasingly blurred.
Although Toxic Boost could increase its combat power, it was also constantly consuming its vitality.
The Zangoose raised its hand and swiped down at the Seviper.
Then—it lost consciousness—
"Hiss!"
The Seviper let out a roar toward the sky.
"Won!" "You were great! Seviper!" "You are the strongest!" "Zangoose, you were great too!" "You must win next year!"—
Lucas sighed, and Gothitelle floated down from the air, taking them over to Officer Joy.
The crowd had dispersed, and after receiving treatment, the Zangoose Family began to leave in an orderly fashion.
Lost again—
The Zangoose leader was in immense pain.
The Seviper Family had long since left.
Except for special circumstances, Lucas would never let these two groups meet.
"Zangoose."
The Zangoose stopped and looked back at Lucas.
Lucas looked at them with a smile. "Do you want to become stronger?"
The Zangoose leader did not hesitate and turned to leave.
"Roar!"
"I don't need your help. That would be unfair to them. We will rely on our own strength to win the next match."
Although the Zangoose was in pain, it knew that as long as it kept the agreement, and as long as Lucas was still there, they would still have a chance to win.
They did not need to rely on outside help to defeat their mortal enemies.
For them, that would be a humiliation.
"I won't help you. On the contrary, we actually need your help. You can take this as our request."
Lucas phrased it differently. "Zangoose, while helping us, you can also become stronger and constantly challenge powerful enemies. Why not?"
"You—no, Zangoose, you surely don't want to keep losing to the Seviper every time, right?"
Gothitelle, who was on the side, couldn't help but frown.
Why did that sound a bit strange?
Ninetales simply swiped its tail at Lucas.
"Hiss—"
Lucas made the sound of a Seviper.
The Zangoose leader led the Zangoose to look back at Lucas. Seeing this, Lucas walked up, looked at them, and said: "You know, around Twinleaf Town and the Breeding House, many wild Pokémon arrive every day and settle down. Added to the wild Pokémon already there, they choose to attack some gentle Pokémon and the people living here. Furthermore, there are often criminal organizations that choose to capture wild Pokémon and steal other people's Pokémon."
"Roar." What do you want to say?
Lucas showed a gentle smile and said softly: "I mean, I want to ask for your help. When we need it, you could help us drive away those wild Pokémon that destroy the surrounding environment and cause panic, as well as help us strike at criminal organizations, finding and capturing them."
We won't be caught by you.
"No, not caught. It's cooperation. We will pay you, and during our cooperation, you can go and fight stronger wild Pokémon, or fight powerful criminals. I believe that in constant battles, your strength will greatly improve, and at the same time, you will receive our payment, which can be food or money."
Lucas explained patiently.
At this time, Officer Jenny also spoke up: "At the same time, Twinleaf Town will be open to you. You can enter Twinleaf Town on your own, as long as you don't cause any damage."
Lucas looked at them. "How does it feel to be cheered on by others? Even though you hurt them in the past, they were still won over by your unyielding character and cheered for you."
"Zangoose, can you help us? Drive away wild Pokémon, fight against evil."
The Zangoose remembered the cheers and shouts it had seen and heard just now, and fell into silence—
"Roar." We are wild—
Lucas knew their concerns and said with a smile, "It's okay. You don't need to follow Officer Jenny and the others every moment. You can return to your territory and live as usual, and we won't go there to disturb you. It's only in some special situations that we will ask for your help, such as the child missing incident last time, or potential wild Pokémon incidents that may happen next—"
The Zangoose leader thought for a while.
Then it nodded tentatively.
"Roar." Then—can we give it a try?
Lucas and Officer Jenny looked at each other, both seeing the Joy in each other's eyes.
After letting Officer Jenny and the Zangoose leader discuss for a while and sign a contract, Officer Jenny and her colleagues escorted the Zangoose back to their territory.
Lucas clapped his hands and stretched.
Successfully recruited!
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