Chapter Ninety-One: The Strange Pipi

"Stop right there! Or else I’ll..."

At that moment, an ordinary Team Rocket grunt seized Misty as a hostage.

The Starmie and the rest of Misty’s Pokémon immediately halted their assault. Only Gyarados continued to rampage, still pouring out ferocious attacks. For a moment, it was impossible to tell that it was Misty’s Pokémon at all.

After all, Gyarados by nature was volatile, irritable, and highly unstable. It had only just evolved, and even Misty herself would have struggled to command it!

"Hey! You’d better stop now!" the grunt threatened Amu.

But Amu reacted just as quickly. He had already rushed to the side of the Rocket underling who had been knocked senseless by Gyarados’s tail. Without hesitation, he shoved a bottle of medicine against the man’s mouth.

"Let that woman go, or my permanent sex-change potion won’t know who it’s dealing with!" Amu said with absolute conviction.

"Per-permanent sex change?" The grunt could not help but blanch, then snapped in fury. "You’re still pretending you don’t know your own accomplice? Who the hell would believe some permanent sex-change potion!"

"Heh. This was a potion my master specially developed for the breeding of rare Pokémon..." Amu said with lofty coldness.

As they spoke, only Misty and Ken’s Pokémon had stopped fighting. Amu’s Pokémon, along with the released wild Pokémon, had already seized complete advantage. Amu was in no rush at all, so he could spout nonsense without any pressure.

Just as Amu was about to think of another condition to get the other side to release Misty first, he suddenly noticed something behind them.

"Behind you..." Amu kindly tried to warn him.

"Shut up! You think I’d believe—ack!"

The moment his goodwill was met with disbelief, a flash of cold light streaked by. The man let out a shriek and flew straight toward Amu—flying horizontally, and very much not by choice.

"You bastards, don’t you know whose turf this is? Huh?"

Then a tiny, pink, cuddly-looking figure stepped out of the shadows behind them. Clearly, it had been the one to punch the Team Rocket grunt flying.

"This is..." Amu looked at the approaching Pokémon in some surprise.

By appearance alone...

It was unmistakably a Clefairy. Yet its bearing gave none of that adorable Clefairy charm; instead it felt somewhat fierce... No, not fierce exactly. More like... streetwise and roguish.

"Huh? You idiot, you’re still not caught by that Gastly?" Gastly seemed to know this Clefairy.

The Clefairy blinked, then said, "What? So the stray dog came crawling back, did it? Clefairy, clefairy, looks like things are going to get more interesting from now on." Its tone was unmistakably that of a big shot, and it even deliberately turned away to strike a pose.

Amu could tell at once: this was another Pokémon that had thoroughly mastered telepathy and human speech!

Such Pokémon were quite rare. Even if, in a technical sense, they could do it, very few Pokémon truly mastered it—especially not with such startling fluency.

With the Clefairy joining the battle, and with the third iron cage also opened, the situation was rapidly brought under control.

And in the midst of this, Amu also noticed that Clefairy’s fighting style was...

It was shockingly a rare physical-attacking Clefairy, expertly using Comet Punch. When those seemingly short arms unleashed the move, steel-type energy coalesced, forming the phantom image of a larger, sturdier arm and fist—several sizes bigger, with a powerfully built outline.

And the force behind each punch...

Made Amu suspect that this Clefairy knew Belly Drum, and had probably already used it.

Sure enough, once the fighting began to subside, Clefairy showed obvious signs of fatigue.

"Quick, recall your Pokémon!" Amu urged Misty.

"Huh? Oh!" Misty froze for a moment, then immediately understood what Amu meant.

While inside a Poké Ball, a Pokémon remained in a kind of semi-dormant state. Although the duration of the medicine would not completely stop, its consumption would slow dramatically.

Repeated use of battle-enhancing medicine was harmful to a Pokémon’s health, so its effective time had to be stretched as much as possible.

At this point, Amu looked at Gastly and said, "Hey, why don’t you come inside for now?"

Amu had charged too hard just now and was injured as a result. Although he had emergency healing medicine and could manage, if Gastly were willing to be temporarily captured, Amu could send Nido back first—Pokémon transfer was not restricted by any wireless signal.

However, exchanging carried Pokémon required being in an area with signal...

After all, the storage place had to be contacted first, and the other side had to prepare and send the stored Pokémon over.

Gastly scrutinized Amu, while Clefairy stood nearby, picking its nose as it said, "Tch, tch. Don’t tell me you’re trying to scam a ride, clefairy, clefairy..."

Clefairy let out a smug, mocking laugh.

Amu: ???

"No... it’s just to extend the effect of the battle medicine! You can’t keep taking this stuff continuously! And also... are you really a Clefairy?"

Amu always felt that this Clefairy was weird.

"Tsk. So what? Is only being cute what makes a Clefairy? Want me to bat my eyes and go all pathetic for you?" Clefairy said disdainfully.

Amu: ...

"No need. I can rest temporarily in your shadow too," Gastly said, and then slipped into Amu’s shadow.

"To hide in shadows" was a special talent of the Gengar line.

"Hey, what’s this medicine you mentioned..."

Clefairy was about to ask Amu more, but Amu’s expression suddenly changed.

"Shh, wait a moment..."

Seeing Amu once again touch the side of his glasses like that, Misty understood that he was hearing something from Agatha again!

Ken’s signal has disappeared...

Should we go look...

Proceed to the Moon Altar as soon as possible...

...

Again, only vague fragments came through.

"Not good. These guys probably have signal devices on them. Even if they can’t communicate in real time, their side already knows they’ve been attacked!" Amu said, glancing at the men pinned beneath the massive boulders created by Rock Tomb, all of them "sleeping."

"So... should we ambush them?" Misty suggested.

"No. I couldn’t hear clearly, but it sounds like they’re not coming here. They’re heading for the Moon Altar instead," Amu said, looking at Clefairy.

"Tch. Then I’ll go take a look and see just who’s making trouble on my turf!" Clefairy said haughtily.

With Gastly asleep in the shadow, only Clefairy could lead the way—though Gastly had not said so, that was clearly its plan as well, and besides...

"And I know a path that none of those other idiot Clefairy or idiot Gastly would ever know!" Clefairy said with great confidence.

At that, Amu’s eyes lit up. Team Rocket would certainly be guarding against an attack from the route these people were taking. If they could switch to another path, they could slip past the enemy’s vigilance!

Naturally, Amu did not forget to use animal senses to communicate, temporarily "recruiting" some of the wild Pokémon as well.

Although the stronger ones among them were generally only around level thirty or so, they had only just used healing medicine and had not yet used any boosting potions.

Taking some medicine in the middle of battle could still be a significant help.

After all, Amu was helping them rescue their comrades and protect their habitat, so after a brief exchange, the wild Dugtrio, Sandslash, Marowak, Onix, and Carkol were all willing to cooperate.

However, among the captured Pokémon, not a single one belonged to either the Gengar line or the Clefairy line...

Looking at the Pokémon he had roused into action with talk of "saving their comrades," and who were now ready at any moment to be fed medicine, Amu suddenly fell into thought.

"What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re nervous?" Misty asked anxiously.

"No. I just suddenly feel... does this make me a bit like Hody Jones?"

"Who’s that? An actor?"

"Nothing. You wouldn’t know him..."

"Brother Shen!"

"Mm!"

Shen Changqing walked along the road, and whenever he met someone he knew, they would greet each other or nod.

But no matter who it was,

none of them had any superfluous expression on their faces, as though indifferent to everything.

To this, Shen Changqing had long since grown used to it.

This was because this place was the Demon Suppression Office, an institution tasked with maintaining the stability of Great Qin. Its main duty was to slay demons, monsters, and all manner of uncanny horrors, though it also had some other sidelines.

It could be said that everyone in the Demon Suppression Office had blood on their hands.

When a person had seen too much life and death, they would become indifferent to many things.

When he first arrived in this world, Shen Changqing had been somewhat unaccustomed to it, but over time he had grown used to it.

The Demon Suppression Office was vast.

Only those with formidable strength, or those with the potential to become such experts, could remain within it.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter.

Within the Demon Suppression Office, there were two professions: the Guardian and the Demon Exorcist.

Anyone who entered the Demon Suppression Office began as the lowest-tier Demon Exorcist,

then rose step by step, with the hope of eventually becoming a Guardian.

The former self of Shen Changqing had been an apprentice Demon Exorcist in the Demon Suppression Office, the lowest rank among them.

With those memories, he was extremely familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Office.

Before long, Shen Changqing stopped before a pavilion.

Unlike the other grim and murderous places within the Demon Suppression Office, this pavilion stood apart like a crane among chickens, exuding a different kind of tranquility amid the blood-soaked surroundings.

The pavilion door stood open, and people came and went from time to time.

After only a slight hesitation, Shen Changqing stepped inside.

Once he entered the pavilion, the atmosphere changed abruptly.

A wave of ink fragrance mixed with a faint trace of blood rushed at him, making his brows instinctively knit, though they soon relaxed again.

The blood scent on everyone in the Demon Suppression Office was almost impossible to wash away.