Chapter 238

Chapter 238: Chapter 238

Meanwhile, Mike had followed Rotom’s directions and was approaching the area with Big Sis Snivy, Hattrem, Glameow, and Froslass.

From a distance, he could already see Gengar sitting comfortably beside a campfire.

More concerningly, there appeared to be an enormous block of ice hanging directly above the flames.

Mike stared at it.

’Why does that block of ice look so familiar?’

A terrible premonition struck him.

He immediately quickened his pace, and the moment he got close enough to recognize the figure inside the ice, his expression changed.

"GENGAR! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

Gengar turned around.

Seeing Mike approaching, he cheerfully flashed him an enormous grin.

"Gar—!"

[I’m helping him thaw out!]

"Thaw out?! What do you think he is, frozen chicken?! Are you preparing dinner or something?!"

Mike was so furious that he raised one foot and pretended to give Gengar’s backside a powerful kick.

Gengar enthusiastically played along, rolling several times through the snow before springing back to his feet.

He patted the snow off his cheeks with both hands and floated back to Mike’s side, still grinning as though nothing had happened.

Mike gave him an exasperated glare.

"Get Beedrill down from there. Right now!"

Gengar obediently nodded, bent down to scoop up a large handful of snow, and threw it over the fire to extinguish the flames.

Only then did he use Will-O-Wisp properly, carefully melting the ice around Beedrill until his younger brother was finally free.

"Snivy?"

At almost the same moment, Snivy suddenly turned toward the sled.

The middle-aged man, apparently having recovered just enough to move, had been trying to climb back onto it while everyone’s attention was elsewhere.

A Vine Whip immediately shot out from Snivy’s body, wrapped around the man’s waist, and yanked him straight off the sled.

Before he could struggle, she bound him securely with her vines.

Mike turned toward the captured man and began walking over.

Froslass, however, had already finished checking Snorunt’s injuries.

The moment she saw the man responsible for kidnapping the little Pokémon, she flew directly above him and spread her long sleeves.

An enraged cry rang across the snowy clearing.

"FROSS!!!"

The sky darkened as another violent blizzard began forming overhead.

Snow swirled through the air with increasing intensity, and visibility rapidly deteriorated while the surrounding temperature plummeted.

The middle-aged man, still securely bound by Snivy’s vines, began losing body heat at an alarming rate.

His struggling gradually weakened as the freezing cold overwhelmed him.

"Froslass."

Mike called to her.

Hovering above the clearing, Froslass turned toward him.

The powerful wind whipped Mike’s black-and-white scarf around his neck, causing its long end to flutter wildly through the falling snow.

The adorable chibi Serperior embroidered into the fabric remained clearly visible.

Mike raised his head and met Froslass’s icy gaze.

"I’m not going to stop you from punishing him," he said calmly. "But before you do anything, I need to ask you to give me a little time."

He gestured toward the man below.

"I have to find out whether he’s captured any other Pokémon. If there are more victims somewhere on this mountain, we need to know where they are and whether we can still rescue them."

Mike had no intention of defending the man.

As far as he was concerned, the wilderness operated according to its own rules.

Humans who harmed wild Pokémon could hardly complain when those same Pokémon retaliated.

But that didn’t mean he could simply stand aside and allow Froslass to kill the man before they learned whether other Pokémon were still in danger.

He needed answers first.

Froslass stared down at him without speaking.

Her expression remained terrifyingly cold.

Frost gradually crept along the fluttering end of Mike’s scarf.

Beside him, Hattrem’s pink-and-white eyes began changing to an eerie pinkish-purple, while Snivy silently wrapped another Vine Whip around Mike’s waist, preparing to pull him away if necessary.

Yellow electrical arcs danced across Rotom’s body.

For a few tense moments, neither side moved.

Then Gengar appeared.

He floated cheerfully into the clearing with Beedrill beside him, a spinning Shadow Ball resting in one chubby hand.

His expression was as sunny and carefree as ever.

Froslass looked at the Shadow Ball, then at Gengar’s enormous grin.

After a moment of silence, she closed her eyes.

The blizzard gradually subsided.

The clouds parted, allowing bright sunlight to pour across the snow once again.

Mike quietly brushed the frost from his scarf before turning back toward the man.

"Gengar, take out the microwave."

Gengar promptly retrieved the appliance, and Mike stuffed Rotom into it before placing the microwave beside the shivering man.

Rotom: "???"

The appliance began giving off warmth, gradually restoring the man’s body temperature.

As soon as he was warm enough to regain consciousness, Mike asked Snivy to put a Pecha Berry into his mouth to neutralize the poison.

After a short while, the man finally opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was Froslass—the very Pokémon whose blizzard had prevented him from escaping the mountain.

Beside her stood a young man wearing a heavy down jacket and a black-and-white scarf that covered the lower half of his face.

Several Pokémon surrounded the young man, including the enormous Beedrill who had attacked him earlier and the grinning Gengar responsible for poisoning him.

The young man spoke first.

"Are you a Pokémon Hunter?"

The middle-aged man struggled into a sitting position.

When he noticed that Glalie had also been captured and locked inside the iron cage, he realized there was no realistic chance of escaping.

He decided to answer.

"No. I’m a Pokémon poacher."

"A poacher?"

"More specifically, I take commissions from clients who want particular Pokémon," the man explained. "We track down and capture the species they’re looking for, but we don’t steal Pokémon that already belong to other Trainers."

Mike nodded thoughtfully.

"I see."

He studied the man for a moment before asking, "Then why were you trying to capture Snorunt?"

"Because there’s an old rumor about them," the man answered. "People say that anyone who owns a Snorunt will eventually become wealthy and have plenty of children and grandchildren."

He glanced toward the snowy slopes surrounding them.

"But Snorunt generally live deep in snowy mountains, in places ordinary people can’t easily reach. That’s why some people are willing to pay extremely high prices to have someone else capture one for them."

Mike looked toward the little Snorunt sitting beside Froslass.

He vaguely remembered hearing a similar piece of folklore before.

Actually, now that he thought about it, there really was a legend like that associated with Snorunt.

"That rumor isn’t true," Mike pointed out.

The man shrugged weakly.

"Whether it’s true or false doesn’t matter to me. As long as someone believes it and is willing to pay, that’s enough. My job is just to capture the Pokémon my clients request."

"Well, I suppose that’s how your business works," Mike replied.

He considered the explanation for a moment before continuing.

"Besides Snorunt, did you capture any other Pokémon during this trip?"

"No. Snorunt was my only target."

Mike frowned.

"None at all? If you came here specifically to capture Snorunt, then why didn’t you leave the mountain immediately after catching one?"

The middle-aged man hesitated.

Rather than answering, he glanced toward Froslass, who was still watching him from nearby.

After a moment, he finally spoke.

"Because of Froslass."

"Froslass?"

Mike followed his gaze.

The man nodded.

"After she discovered Snorunt was missing, she covered the entire mountain in a blizzard. With visibility that poor, trying to descend the mountain would have been extremely dangerous."

He continued explaining, his expression growing increasingly bitter as he remembered the previous two days.

"And that wasn’t the only problem. The other wild Pokémon were also fleeing the areas affected by her storm. If I tried to leave at the same time, there was a good chance I’d run into them and get attacked."

"So I decided to wait until the blizzard ended or Froslass exhausted herself and couldn’t keep it going anymore. Then I could make my way down safely."

He sighed.

"Unfortunately, Snorunt escaped while I wasn’t paying attention."

Mike finally understood.

’So that’s what happened.’

No wonder the mountain had seemed so strangely deserted throughout his journey.

It wasn’t simply that wild Pokémon were uncommon above the snow line.

Froslass had been furious over Snorunt’s disappearance and had effectively sealed off this part of Mount Coronet with a relentless blizzard.

The storm had driven many of the area’s wild Pokémon away, which explained why Mike had encountered so few of them.

He glanced toward Froslass before turning back to the man.

"All right. I’ve asked everything I needed to know."

Froslass stared at the poacher who had exploited her trust, deceived her, and taken Snorunt away.

She was still furious.

However, after having a little time to calm down, the murderous intensity of her anger had lessened considerably.

Froslass also understood that human society had people specifically responsible for dealing with criminals.

Rather than continuing to take revenge herself, she finally decided to leave the man’s fate in Mike’s hands.

Mike noticed the change in her expression.

"You want me to handle him?"

Froslass nodded.

"That works too."

Mike took out his phone and called the police, briefly explaining the situation before reading out the coordinates from his navigation system.

Once he finished the call, he returned the phone to his pocket.

"Officer Jenny is on her way. All we have to do now is wait for her to arrive."

Froslass nodded again before taking Snorunt to sit quietly some distance away.

Mike then asked Hattrem to use her psychic power to put the middle-aged man inside the very iron cage he had prepared for Snorunt.

Since Glalie was already locked inside, the two could keep each other company while waiting for the police.

With the situation finally under control, Mike turned his attention toward a much more personal matter.

He still had a score to settle with Gengar.

What kind of older brother roasted his own younger brother over a campfire?!

Mike had already decided that Gengar deserved a proper lecture, but when he turned around, he discovered something that made him stop.

Gengar and Beedrill were floating shoulder to shoulder, apparently whispering about something together.

They looked completely relaxed.

Mike stared at them.

"Wait. You two already made up?"

Gengar turned toward him and scratched his large backside in confusion.

"Gar?"

[When did we have a fight?]

Mike’s eyes widened.

"What do you mean, when?! You... he... didn’t you just roast Beedrill over a fire?!"

He pointed directly at Beedrill.

Gengar blinked before giving Mike an adorable smile.

"Gar—"

[We were just playing.]

"Playing?!"

Mike’s mouth fell open.

He turned toward Beedrill, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"And you’re seriously not angry about that?"

Beedrill calmly shook his head.

"Bzzzt—"

[Because Big Bro knew those flames couldn’t actually hurt me.]

Mike stared at the two Pokémon.

Then he looked at Gengar.

Then back at Beedrill.

Finally, he sighed.

"No wonder you two get along so well. You’re both exactly the same kind of troublemaker!"

He had genuinely thought Beedrill would be furious about the entire incident.

In fact, Mike had already been preparing himself to mediate a possible disagreement between the two brothers.

Apparently, he’d worried for nothing.

There hadn’t been any disagreement in the first place.

They had simply been fooling around together.

Then again, what else should he have expected?

This was Gengar, who had somehow discovered countless ridiculous ways to play with Beedrill when he was still a Weedle and Kakuna.

And this was Beedrill, who had apparently been perfectly willing to let Gengar use him for all those ridiculous purposes.

"Gar~"

Gengar flashed Mike another shameless grin.

[Hehehe. You wouldn’t understand the friendship of the Evil Twin Stars.]

Mike rolled his eyes.

"Gengar, you do realize that ’evil’ isn’t actually a compliment, right?"

"Gar?"

Gengar tilted his head.

[What’s a ’compliment’? Is it something you can eat?]

Mike fell silent.

He looked at Gengar for a long moment before giving up.

"You know what? Never mind. Go play."

Gengar gave a cheerful cry of acknowledgment and floated away with Beedrill.

The two settled some distance from the others, where Gengar eagerly began recounting the martial-arts adventure story he had only just invented.

Beedrill listened beside him with his usual calm expression, apparently more than happy to hear yet another of his older brother’s ridiculous tales.

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