"Probably around—" Ron calculated for a mont before giving a rough tifra.
"From back then—in that city?"
Ron wasn't too sure about this, as the seeds were a gift from the market vendor when Joy bought so. Ron hadn't asked exactly where it was from.
"I see." Hearing Ron's answer, Ramos asked after a while, "Then that must be the child."
When Ramos encountered the Bellossom—back when it was still an Oddish—was roughly half a year ago.
Because he loved searching for Grass-type Pokémon in various forests, he one day stumbled upon an Oddish being bullied in the woods.
It was shockingly weak; when being bullied, it would only bury itself in a hole and stay completely motionless.
But strangely, just as the other Pokémon were about to let it go, it would recklessly charge right back at them, only to be flipped over again, sotis even getting knocked unconscious by a move.
"It's already gotten this strong." Ramos said, crouching down to pat Bellossom's head. "You've found yourself a very good trainer."
"Bellossom~"
Ramos smiled, stood up after a mont, and looked at Ron with a face full of admiration.
Although Ramos had considered adopting that Oddish back then, it was simply too weak and too stubborn. He didn't feel bringing it to the Gym would bring it any benefits, so he didn't take it in.
"Bell~" Bellossom held its sword, standing guard right beside Ron.
"Let's leave it at that for today. Here is your Gym Badge." Saying this, Ramos handed the badge over to Ron.
Ti skipped to the next day.
After everything was prepared, and with Ramos's help in finding workers to start building the tea processing factory, Ron headed back to Pelican Town.
As the boat slowly pulled away from the port, Ron steered while eyeing the conspicuous vessel on the sea.
"I'm guessing that's Team Rocket again." Ron sighed deeply, reaching out to grab Bellossom's Pokéball.
"Bellossom?"
"Go capsize their boat."
"Bell." Bellossom paused, then stepped onto the deck upon hearing this, staring intently at the boat that had been tailing them.
anwhile, on the other boat.
"Wasn't the Boss's mission to get that little girl's frog?"
"Mind your own business." Ichiro took a deep breath and continued, "That frog was obtained by him. He might have even stronger things on him; those little girls from before didn't have this kind of stuff."
"I see. Hey, why did that boat stop? Did they spot us?"
"Impossible, we're perfectly hidden."
Before he even finished speaking, the boat in the distance vanished from their sight.
"What do we do? The boat is gone!"
"Keep moving forward, it might just be a trick of the eye." Saying this, Ichiro steered their boat toward the empty waters in the distance.
Just as the two were still searching the sea for Ron's boat, the vessel that had seemingly vanished from the water suddenly appeared right next to theirs.
"Ah—!"
Before the two could recover from their shock, sothing they couldn't quite make out, engulfed in a purple glow, charged onto their deck.
This was followed by a few crisp cracking sounds. In the blink of an eye, the conspicuously appearing boat vanished once again.
"What do we do, it's gone again." Just as his teammate was about to ask Ichiro for a plan, his eyes shifted, and he noticed that for so unknown reason, the hull of their own boat was slowly splitting apart.
"Keep looking, what else can we do! I don't believe a boat that big just completely disappeared—"
Before he could finish, his teammate poked him and replied with a trembling voice, "N-no, not them... Our boat..."
By the ti Ron's boat arrived at the port, he turned around to praise Bellossom, then steered toward the distant beach.
From afar, he could see a figure standing at the docks.
It was blurry, and he couldn't make out the details, but he vaguely felt the figure looked familiar. Regardless, based on the color sche, it wasn't Willy.
Just as Ron was thinking this, the person at the docks seed to notice him as well, and started waving their arms vigorously.
"Hmm—Penny?" Ron slowly recognized her.
As soon as the small boat approached, Willy walked out of the fish shop, accompanied by Team Rocket.
"You're back!" Penny cheered, waving at Ron. "Long ti no see."
"Long ti no see."
Even though he didn't think it had been that long, Ron still echoed the sentint. He then shifted his gaze to Jessie and Jas, who were standing awkwardly in front of the fish shop, as well as owth beside them.
"What's going on with you guys?"
"I told them no." Willy spread his hands, explaining to Ron. "They ca to ask to borrow a boat, saying they wanted to go back to Kalos to get so things. But I refused."
Jessie and Jas hung their heads in bitter resignation.
owth couldn't help but add, "We're going to pick up our Pokémon, ow."
"Your Pokémon?"
"Yeah, ow." owth glanced at Willy, then at Penny, before walking over to Ron and whispering in his ear, "Their Pokémon are still stuck back in Kalos... If they officially leave the team, so of those Pokémon might just get released into the wild, ow. Or worse, they could be dispatched to even more dangerous places for missions."
If they weren't Pokémon hand-raised by soone else, it was highly likely that Jessie and Jas's Pokémon would be treated purely as shields, or even sacrifices.
Or they might even be used directly as test subjects.
Especially since their overall combat abilities weren't that high to begin with.
Hearing this, Ron paused, pulled out his backpack, and began pulling things out of it.
Not noticing Ron's actions, Jessie and Jas exchanged a glance and, in their despair, couldn't help but say, "We're really grateful for you taking care of us for so many days—but we have to be with our Pokémon."
"That's right, that's right," Jas agreed. "As long as we're with them, we don't care if we get blasted off every day. We can't possibly abandon them and stay here."
"—Even though owth really likes it here, it's true," owth said, hanging its head. "But owth wants to stay with Jessie and Jas even more, ow."
Just as the three of them were in tears, moving even Penny to emotion, Ron finally finished pulling out all the Pokéballs.
Click, click, click.
A few crisp sounds rang out.
Just as Jessie reached up to wipe the tears from her face, a small paw reached out in front of her.
"Waaah—I must just be missing Lickitung way too much," Jessie sobbed. "I'm hallucinating it standing right in front of ."
" too, waaah, it's just like Mi Jr. is really standing right in front of ."
Before he even finished speaking, Jas processed what he was seeing. He stared blankly at the Mi Jr. in front of him, who was mimicking his crying posture, and after a second, scooped it up into his arms.
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