["The champion has been decided! The champion of this year's Pokémon Sumo Conference has been born! Contestant Tetsuya has won the championship in his very first Pokémon Sumo Conference. What… what a genius!"]
"…"
The somewhat amateur host of the event announced the result.
Afterward, the president of Rikishii Town's Sumo Association awarded Tetsuya the King's Rock prize, along with a year's supply of Pokéfood.
The president of the Sumo Association was quite knowledgeable about how to equip a King's Rock. Tetsuya brought out Houndoom, and after performing a few ceremonial procedures, the president placed the King's Rock in the center of Houndoom's forehead.
A special power naturally attached itself to Houndoom and completely fused with its body. After equipping the King's Rock, Houndoom's kingly bearing became fully apparent, and its intimidation aura was even stronger than before.
However, this year's supply of Pokéfood gave Tetsuya a headache. It was also high-quality Pokéfood, enough to feed one Pokémon for an entire year. After weighing his options, Tetsuya decided to ship all of the Pokéfood to Ecruteak Gym.
Naturally, the sender's name was "Tetsuya." It was necessary to give Matsuba a bit of a scare first…
The person he cared about most, however, was Raine. Tetsuya had no idea how much that emo guy had grown over the past few years. As long as that person remained alive, he would always be a threat!
---◓---
After leaving Rikishii Town, Tetsuya naturally returned to the shop where he had previously purchased the Held items.
Applying the Bright Powder to Golurk took an entire afternoon. Having already gone through the process once before, Golurk understood very well that it would be unable to move for the next three months.
As the saying goes, the closer one gets to home, the more hesitant one becomes. Ecruteak City was getting closer and closer. It was the place where his dream had begun. Now that he was about to arrive, he instead found himself becoming somewhat, eh… timid. His pace of travel had noticeably slowed over the past few days.
At present, Tetsuya and Catherine had already left the town far behind and were traveling along a road through a barren mountain.
"…Move aside! Move asiiiide!"
Suddenly, they heard a loud shout. Tetsuya and Catherine turned around and saw three middle-aged men riding Arcanine and charging toward them.
In this world, anyone capable of riding an Arcanine was undoubtedly wealthy. The value of a single Arcanine was comparable to that of a luxury car.
'Hn.'
"Come out, Houndoom."
Tetsuya threw Houndoom's Poké Ball. He had been looking for an opponent to test the effects of Houndoom's King's Rock. Running into Tetsuya today could only be considered bad luck for them.
After emerging, Houndoom let out a roar that echoed through the field. The charging Arcanine suddenly seemed to see a terrifying black shadow, vicious fangs bared, horrifying beyond measure, as though a monster were about to devour them.
This was precisely the effect of the King's Rock.
The Arcanine slammed on their brakes and immediately came to a stop. All three Arcanine were so frightened that they backed away, paying no attention to the three men who had been thrown to the ground.
"Come back! Get back here!"
No matter how the three Trainers shouted, the Arcanine ignored them. Left with no other choice, they could only recall the Arcanine with their Poké Balls.
The three men glared viciously at Tetsuya and strode toward him aggressively.
"Kid, how dare you block our path! Do you even know who we are, huh!?" The leading middle-aged man said.
"Hmm? Who are you? People who can act so arrogantly and charge recklessly along the road?" Tetsuya said.
"...?"
The leading man was momentarily speechless.
One of the middle-aged men beside him said, "We're Rangers in this area, kid. We've been entrusted by the League to deliver the Fire Stone prize to the city ahead where the Fire-type Tournament is being held. If you're smart, move aside immediately! If the competition is delayed, that's not something you can afford to be responsible for."
"Rangers, huh? League officials. Whoa! Quite impressive indeed."
Tetsuya deliberately offered a bit of praise. He truly hated Rangers. During his previous life as a Pokémon Hunter, he had often dealt with Rangers. He had lost count of how many times those Rangers had driven him into desperate situations.
With his current level, Tetsuya naturally did not dare openly oppose the League, but teasing these three old Rangers could at least help him vent some frustration.
"Hahaha! It's good that you know we're League officials. You blocked our path without permission just now. Do you know how serious the consequences are? As long as we report this to the League… tch, you can forget about becoming a Pokémon Trainer!" The lead Ranger threatened.
"That really is terrible… Please be merciful," Tetsuya said deliberately. The atmosphere within the Johto League had deteriorated to an extreme degree. The duty of Rangers was originally to protect the Pokémon within their jurisdiction and ensure the safety of passing Trainers.
Now, however, it had evolved into Rangers collecting protection fees from passing Trainers while using various threats against the rookie ones. It was utterly despicable.
"Ahem! As long as each of you pays 10,000 Pokédollars, we'll let you go. Otherwise, don't even think about getting by in Johto," The lead Ranger said.
Tetsuya shook his head. As expected, they were robbers. Out here in the wilderness, he had not encountered any thieves. Instead, he had encountered Rangers, wearing the cloak of justice while committing acts of robbery.
Although 10,000 Pokédollars was practically nothing when it came to raising Pokémon, for an ordinary family it represented two months of wages. Yet these men demanded it the moment they opened their mouths.
"Money isn't a problem. However, I don't believe you're actually Rangers. If you can't demonstrate the level of a Ranger, my Houndoom will be sending you to Officer Jenny."
Tetsuya snorted. Houndoom immediately became alert, its eyes fixed on the three men. As long as Tetsuya gave the order, it would rush forward and tear them to pieces.
"What arrogance! Back in our day, we were strong enough to reach the quarterfinals of League tournaments. Today we'll show you… Come out, Arcanine!"
"What's the fun in fighting alone? You too, Arcanine!"
The two Rangers on either side also sent out their Arcanine. As soon as the two Arcanine faced Houndoom, they were intimidated by its aura and instinctively took half a step backward.
Tetsuya also threw Beedrill's Poké Ball. His current level was already far beyond what these two Rangers could contend with. Even if Houndoom fought both Arcanine alone, it would have no problem. However, these were still League-registered Rangers, so he could not afford to be overly careless. It was also a good opportunity to test Beedrill's Metronome.
""Agility!""
The two Rangers shouted at the same time. These three Rangers were already middle-aged and had worked together in the same area for many years, so they naturally had their own coordinated tactics.
Arcanine's Agility combined with Extreme Speed could indeed achieve the effect of striking while appearing and disappearing without a trace.
"Houndoom, Snatch. Beedrill, Double Team."
Houndoom shot forward like a bullet. A black shadow flashed past as it had already passed through the Arcanine that were preparing to use Agility.
The two Arcanine froze on the spot in confusion.