Pokémon: Reborn as Lucario

Chapter 141: The Strange Footprints

After learning the cause of the matter, the girl with glasses blushed and thanked her repeatedly.

"Ah, I'm sorry. It's all my fault for not noticing. I've caused you trouble."

Míng Rìzhào, with her carefree personality, didn't mind. After neatly stacking the books that were about to fall, she generously extended her hand and said, "It's a small matter. My name is Míng Rìzhào. And you?"

The girl with glasses gently shook Míng Rìzhào's hand. "Hello, my name is Fengling."

The naturally friendly Míng Rìzhào thus began to chat in a low voice with this young girl named Fengling.

"Fengling, what book are you reading?"

"Ah, that... wasn't the legendary Steel God Pillar, Registeel, on the live TV broadcast a while ago? I'm very curious about the origin of this kind of Pokémon, so I planned to search the historical records to see if I can find any information."

Searching historical records?!

Upon hearing this, Míng Rìzhào's eyes lit up.

She grinned and sidled up to Fengling.

"It seems you're very familiar with the books here, Fengling?"

"S-so-so. Because my home is in Yuanqi City, I usually come here to read often."

As if a little unaccustomed to Míng Rìzhào's enthusiasm, Fengling twisted her body a little unnaturally and then spoke in a small voice.

"Then can I ask you some things?"

"Wh-what is it?"

"It's like this..."

Míng Rìzhào told Fengling about her desire to find information related to her own Pokémon, Riolu.

"An unrecorded Pokémon?"

When it came to searching for information on an unknown, mysterious Pokémon, even Fengling's originally somewhat shy little face couldn't hide her curiosity.

The two girls, taking advantage of the opportunity to look at books and find information together, quickly became familiar with each other.

"Ah, is this your Pokémon?"

Only then did Fengling notice Ralts, who was quietly flipping through a book on the other side of the desk. And Ralts's delicate and cute appearance also made Fengling instantly like her.

"Yes, she is. Her name is Ruru." Míng Rìzhào had her Ralts say hello.

"Fengling, where is your Pokémon?"

"Right here."

Fengling took out a Poké Ball, then said in a low voice, "Snivy, come on out. Meet a new friend."

A white light flashed, and a grass snake-type Pokémon, entirely green with a cream-colored belly, appeared before them. It flicked its three-leafed tail and nodded friendly towards Ralts.

"Ah, it's a Snivy! What a cute Pokémon."

Míng Rìzhào recognized this relatively popular Grass-type Pokémon and joyfully reached out, wanting to pat Snivy's head, but was dodged by the latter without a fuss.

Fengling smiled a little embarrassedly. "Sorry, my Snivy is a bit shy with strangers."

Then the girl whispered to her Snivy, "This is Xiao Zhao, and that is Xiao Zhao's Pokémon, Ralts. Snivy, don't be so aloof."

Snivy turned its head away.

It seems there are all sorts of relationships between trainers and their Pokémon.

Míng Rìzhào thought to herself as she looked at Fengling and her Snivy.

…

And what was a certain "wet nurse" who was ordered to take care of a child doing?

"Wow, what an interesting Pokémon."

"And it's carrying a Pokémon egg on its back."

"Little fellow, where's your trainer?"

Walking on the food street of Yuanqi City, various uncles, aunties, big brothers, and big sisters couldn't help but feed Rio.

Rio, who was happily freeloading food and drinks, expressed: Trainer? What's a trainer? Do I have one?

If Lucario was a combination of might and handsomeness, then its unevolved form, Riolu, retained a trace of a small Pokémon's cuteness amidst its handsomeness (don't forget Rio is only 0.8 meters tall and still belongs to the category of small Pokémon). The sight of him carrying a Pokémon egg in a small backpack on his back further stimulated the maternal love of a host of "motherly-hearted" women, instantly turning Rio into the most handsome boy on this food street.

A skewer of candied haws in his left paw, a skewer of grilled meat in his right paw, Rio ate until his mouth was shiny with grease.

This food street in Yuanqi City was truly worthy of being the third major attraction to visit. Because Yuanqi City gathered tourists from all corners of the land and sea, people from different regions also came here to look for business opportunities, and food was a very suitable industry.

On the left side of the food street, the aroma of meat lingered, with various fried, grilled, and roasted meat skewers and fried chicken stimulating the noses of passersby. On the right side were various desserts and snacks: takoyaki, candied haws, ice cream, and so on. Rio even found a shop that was said to use the sweet fresh milk produced by Miltank to make various dairy products. The entrance of the shop was crowded with people, very lively.

Many Pokémon, following their owners, also tasted various delicacies very happily.

And many passersby, seeing Rio, this mysterious Pokémon carrying a "child," couldn't help but use the food in their hands to attract him and then strive to take a photo with him.

"Freeloader" Rio naturally did not refuse anyone who came.

But taking photos was taking photos, no touching allowed! Patting my head is fine, but don't casually touch my "child."

Rio expressed that he still had his principles.

A lone Pokémon naturally also made some people with other intentions plan to use food to do unspeakable evil things, but they were all cleverly dodged by the people-reading Riolu.

Just like that, Rio, carrying the "child" on his back and eating delicacies all the way, suddenly shivered.

"What's going on?"

That feeling of being watched by something appeared again.

This time Rio learned his lesson. He didn't look around immediately, lest he startle the snake in the grass. Instead, he pretended not to feel anything and continued to walk forward slowly.

But secretly, he expanded his Aura, trying to sense what it was that was spying on him.

"Hmm, places with lots of people are just hard to deal with."

His Aura perception was mixed with all sorts of messy Aura waves.

However, after Rio frowned and distinguished carefully, he was still able to detect a rather sinister Aura in a certain direction.

"This Aura... what the heck?"

This Aura—Rio could feel the hatred and resentment it radiated just by approaching it slightly with his perception. What was strange was that this resentment, which should have made the Aura appear sullied and dull, for some reason made the Aura's light even purer.

This drastic contrast was something Rio had never seen before.

No matter what, it was best to first catch whatever had been spying on him. He had already faintly sensed something was wrong back when they were camping.

With a quick turn, Rio, relying on his agile movements, swiftly charged towards the location of that resentful Aura.

"I see you!"

The pupils in his eyes lit up with the azure blue light of Aura.

After penetrating through layers of human figures, he only saw a scruffy little boy staring intently at Rio.

As if sensing he had been discovered by Rio, the little boy was startled and hurriedly hid in a small alley behind him.

"A human?"

Rio was a little puzzled, but there was no time to think too much. He quickly followed the little boy and also rushed into the small alley.

The small alley twisted left and right and was also very narrow. All sorts of miscellaneous items were piled up everywhere. Rio couldn't use his speed advantage at this time, but fortunately, his Aura was still closely trailing that little boy, so he barely managed not to lose him.

"Damn it, how is a child so agile?" Rio considered his own speed of climbing over various obstacles to be very fast, but he could often only see the corner of the little boy's clothes at the next turn.

After chasing for a period of time, Rio sensed that the Aura ahead had stopped.

"Looks like there's no way out! Now you won't get away from me!"

Rio was overjoyed and quickened his pace.

He finally chased him to the end of the small alley. Unfortunately, what was displayed before him, besides a sealed-off wall, was only the empty ground.

"Where's the person? Where did such a big person go?"

Rio was a little disbelieving. He reached out and scratched the wall in front of him. The solid feel told him it was impossible for there to be any secret door.

And using the light of an [Aura Sphere] to observe the ground, he saw that at the entrance of the alley's dead end, besides his own footprints, there was another set of sneaker prints that were clearly a child's.

What was strange was that the sneaker prints disappeared at a certain distance before the wall. And behind the last set of sneaker prints, there were only a few small round dots printed on the ground.

"???"

"What's going on? How did he just disappear?"

Completely baffled, Rio touched his forehead.

"Did I run into a ghost???"

A creepy feeling made the fur on Rio's body stand on end.

It should be known that ghosts really existed in the Pokémon world. Of course, this didn't refer to Ghost-type Pokémon, but the kind of ghosts that couldn't be seen or touched yet existed in the world. When he was in Newmoon Forest, Rio had heard that in a certain tower in the Ist Region that memorialized deceased Pokémon, a vengeful spirit floated at the top of the tower. It couldn't be discovered, couldn't be attacked, couldn't be captured, couldn't be exorcised. It just lingered there, stopping all creatures from attempting to ascend to the top of the tower.

The more Rio thought about it, the more he felt that this pitch-black little alley had a sinister atmosphere. He couldn't help but want to turn his head and leave.

However.

"Can anyone tell me how to get back???"

On the verge of tears, Rio could only ask the Pokémon egg.

And the Pokémon egg, besides its flame patterns turning a little redder, naturally couldn't answer this unlucky fellow's question.

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