Baby Flames shot toward the river one after another.
The high-temperature fireballs crashed into the freezing river water.
The moment they collided, a loud sizzling noise erupted across the surface, followed by bursts of steam rising rapidly into the air.
However, the river had plenty of water.
As the surface evaporated, the rushing current quickly filled the gaps, making it seem largely unaffected.
But Agumon’s attack wasn’t over yet.
After firing four consecutive shots, Agumon took a deep breath until his chest visibly expanded.
Gathering all his strength, he unleashed another barrage of Baby Flames.
One shot…
two shots…
four shots…
eight shots…
ten shots…
It wasn’t until his stamina was completely exhausted that Agumon finally stopped, panting heavily.
In mid-air, a full thirteen Baby Flames hurtled toward the river in a straight line.
“Sizzle!!!”
A piercing, extremely uncomfortable noise—comparable to the move Screech—exploded across the river’s surface.
Even from a distance, Sinshi couldn’t help but frown and cover his ears.
Fortunately, the noise faded as quickly as it came.
When he looked back at the river, the flames were gone.
All that remained were thick clouds of white mist and…
a section of the water that had been completely boiled by the heat of the Baby Flames.
Although the continuous flow of the river would eventually cool and wash away the boiling water, the fish in that specific area clearly had no one to cool them down.
About a dozen Magikarp of various sizes floated to the surface, belly-up with swirls in their eyes.
Seeing this, Agumon jumped straight into the river and began scooping them up.
The sight left Sinshi not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
He remembered when they were traveling through the forest earlier, Agumon had boasted about becoming a master fish-catcher after years of practice.
He claimed to have his own unique fishing technique that, aside from being tiring, almost never failed.
At the time, Sinshi had been genuinely curious about what kind of technique it was.
Until now…
So his so-called ‘fishing’ was actually just bombing the fish.
Or, to be more accurate, boiling them alive.
Heating the water to scald them to death.
At the same time, Sinshi finally understood why Agumon had been able to use Baby Flame so many times in a row without showing signs of fatigue back in the Solaceon Ruins.
It turned out he had trained his stamina entirely by ‘boiling fish.’
By now, Agumon had hauled all the floating fish onto the shore and came jogging back with his arms full.
“Sinshi, you eat these fish.
You don’t need to save any for me,” Agumon said rather generously, dropping all his spoils in front of him.
This made Sinshi feel a bit helpless, but also a little touched.
He shook his head and looked at the Magikarp on the ground.
“I can’t eat them.
Magikarp are basically all bone and no meat.”
“Magikarp?
All bone?”
Agumon quickly squatted down and tapped a Magikarp’s body lightly with his claw.
Sure enough, a dull, hollow sound characteristic of bone echoed from its surface.
Agumon froze.
He had gone through all that effort to catch fish specifically for Sinshi, and they were inedible?
It was one thing for the Oran Berries earlier to be ‘too hard,’ but now even the fish were this tough.
Was all the other food in this world like this too?
For a big eater with a massive appetite, this was simply devastating news.
Honestly, in that moment, Agumon felt a tiny bit disappointed with the Pokémon world.
Sinshi saw through Agumon’s thoughts and comforted him.
“Don’t worry, it’s just bad luck.
We just happened to run into some ‘tough’ ones.
Besides, even if Magikarp had fewer bones and more meat, I still wouldn’t be able to bring myself to eat a Pokémon with this level of intelligence and sentience.”
As he spoke, Sinshi crouched down and rummaged through the pile of unconscious Magikarp, eventually lifting the one buried at the very bottom.
“Plus, there’s actually something edible here.”
The Magikarp Sinshi held up had another fish clamped in its mouth.
This fish was small and entirely red, roughly the same color as the Magikarp, but it clearly looked different.
It wasn’t another fish Pokémon either—it was just an ordinary carp.
Agumon noticed that this fish looked very similar to the ones he used to catch in the Digital World.
His gloomy mood instantly vanished as he said, “You eat that one first!
I’ll go catch a few more just like it.”
With that, he turned to head back to the river.
Sinshi called out to stop him.
“Take these Magikarp with you and throw them back into the river.”
Hearing this, Agumon looked at the pile of dizzy Magikarp on the ground and asked, “Should we feed them some Oran Berries to help them recover their stamina?”
“No need.
Their vitality is much more tenacious than you think.
They just need water.”
“Alright.”
Agumon scooped up all the Magikarp and walked toward the river.
After cleaning out the carp’s innards, Sinshi gathered some dry leaves nearby.
He skewered the carp on a stick, piled up the remaining leaves, borrowed a flame from Agumon, and started grilling the fish.
During this time, Agumon made a few trips back and forth, bringing back three more ordinary fish.
Sinshi prepared them one by one and set them next to the fire to grill.
“This is enough to eat.
You don’t need to catch any more.”
“I’ll catch a few more before it gets dark.
If we can’t finish them, we can take them on the road tomorrow.” Agumon said, his eyes glued to the grilling fish.
Sinshi guessed that if these fish hadn’t been caught specifically for him, Agumon would probably be drooling by now.
As for catching a few more, it was highly likely that Agumon was just craving meat.
After all, the taste and texture of berries and meat were vastly different.
Sinshi didn’t expose him.
He simply nodded, reminding him to be careful, and went back to focusing on grilling the fish.
Above them, the sky had unknowingly begun to darken.
A full moon quietly rose, and stars were faintly visible.
The branches in the campfire burned, radiating waves of warmth while occasionally letting out crisp cracking sounds.
Next to the fire, the roasting carp began to emit the savory aroma of cooked meat.
Not far away, Agumon was working tirelessly.
A large school of Magikarp was fleeing from him in a panic, using Splash to flop onto the shore, only to be tossed back into the river one by one by Agumon.
This quiet and peaceful atmosphere made Sinshi feel incredibly relaxed.
‘I’ve been busy in the city for so long, I can’t even remember the last time I experienced something like this…’
Staring into the campfire, images from his childhood began to surface in his mind.
Meanwhile, not far from where Sinshi was grilling the fish, under a large tree at the edge of the forest, a figure with slightly ragged breathing and what looked like a small mountain atop its head slowly peeked out.
It stared at Sinshi’s position for a long time before finally beginning to approach quietly.