In the end, Elesa still lost.
Whether Eelektrik was going through some kind of breeding-season hormonal surge or had simply been pent up for far too long, it had absolutely no resistance to Snivy’s Attract.
Eventually, the poor thing succumbed to the miserable combination of Attract, Leech Seed, and Magical Leaf chipping away at its health.
What should have been the dramatic final battle instead became the slowest and most hopeless match in the entire video.
It also completely ruined Aiden’s plan to use an intense, high-pressure battle to stimulate Snivy into evolving.
Judging from her energy levels, Snivy had already surpassed the usual Level 17 evolution threshold by quite a margin.
Nurse Joy had also told Aiden that before he caught her, Snivy had once come extremely close to evolving, only to deliberately suppress the process herself.
Aiden understood why.
Snivy had wanted to remain in her original form until she met the Trainer she had chosen for herself, so back then, she had willingly refused to evolve.
Deep down, however, she was still looking forward to the day she finally became a Serperior.
After learning all that, Aiden had specifically saved Snivy for the final round of the Gym battle.
He had never imagined the climactic opponent would turn out to be such a…
unique Pokémon.
“That battle seriously lost half its excitement.”
“Sni!”
Snivy nodded firmly.
A perfectly good victory had somehow turned into…
that.
Frankly, if this hadn’t been Aiden’s first Gym challenge, Snivy would have seriously considered demanding a substitution halfway through.
At least they had still won.
“Congratulations on earning your first Badge!”
Lacey clasped her hands behind her back and smiled at Aiden with her head slightly tilted.
“Should we go celebrate?
Your treat?”
Aiden raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll treat.
You pay.”
“…Huh?”
Lacey blinked.
It was honestly the first time she had ever heard someone say something so shameless with such complete confidence.
She looked at Aiden for a moment before sincerely voicing the strongest impression he had left on her over the past couple of days.
“Every day I spend with you, I learn something new.”
“???”
Aiden stared at her suspiciously.
There was no way he was naïve enough to think she was complimenting him.
But unless he had misheard…
‘Did she just make fun of me?’
Aiden could hardly believe it.
The sweet, considerate girl who had seemed as pure as a flower yesterday had changed this much in a single day.
“Lacey…
you’ve gone bad.”
Aiden looked genuinely heartbroken.
“Aren’t you supposed to happily agree at a time like this?
I just won such a difficult battle.
Aren’t you happy for me?”
Apparently deciding that his own suffering wasn’t persuasive enough, he pulled out Sprigatito’s Poké Ball.
“Just look at Sprigatito.
Look at Snivy…”
He gave Lacey an accusing stare.
“Can you really still say something like that?”
Lacey: “…”
Sprigatito lay sleepily in Aiden’s arms after being released, her eyes barely open and her expression suggesting she had absolutely no idea what was happening.
Lacey stared at him in disbelief.
“You’re the one who woke her up.
Don’t you feel guilty?”
‘Of course not.’
‘If she sleeps all day, I’m the one she tortures all night.’
Aiden wisely kept that thought to himself.
If Sprigatito overheard him, he would probably spend the next several hours convincing her that he still loved cuddling with her.
Instead, he immediately turned the blame around.
“This is your fault!
If you hadn’t upset her, Sprigatito never would’ve gotten so angry that she came out of her Poké Ball!”
“Spriga!”
Sprigatito had no idea what they were talking about.
She nevertheless nodded enthusiastically.
At that moment, Lacey finally understood.
She would never defeat Aiden in a contest of shamelessness and unreasonable arguments.
So she wisely changed tactics and returned to the original subject.
“You said it would be your treat, but somehow I’m the one paying.
You get all the benefits.
That isn’t fair.
At the very least, you should—”
“Haven’t I taught you plenty of things already?”
“…”
Her own sarcastic remark from earlier seemed to echo back through her mind.
Looking at Aiden standing there with his hands on his hips, utterly convinced by his own logic, Lacey pressed her lips together to keep herself from laughing.
Aiden naturally interpreted her silence as an admission that he had won.
…
Walking through Nimbasa City’s bustling streets later that day, Aiden let out a long, mournful sigh.
“We already agreed and everything…”
He still couldn’t believe it.
After spending so long trying to talk Lacey into paying for their celebration, he had somehow ended up paying for it himself.
It certainly wasn’t because Aiden felt guilty about taking advantage of a rich girl.
Given the opportunity, he would have happily turned Lacey into his number-one donor and had her sponsor his entire journey around the world.
Unfortunately, circumstances had become slightly more complicated.
In the end, Aiden had decided to hold a huge barbecue back at the Pokémon Center instead.
Because—
“Aiden, you wouldn’t want Nurse Joy finding out you went off to enjoy a private feast without her, would you?”
The moment Officer Jenny pulled up beside him on her motorcycle and delivered that line, Aiden understood.
This bastard had him cornered.
Rather than feed Jenny and then have her run straight to Joy afterward to snitch anyway, Aiden decided to strike first.
“Perfect timing!
I’m doing a barbecue at the Pokémon Center tonight.
Take all this stuff back for me.
Snivy will handle the cooking!”
Snivy was reluctant to leave Aiden, but she obediently hopped onto the back of Jenny’s motorcycle.
Herdier stared at her occupying its usual spot, clearly wanting to say something but ultimately remaining silent.
Jenny, meanwhile, swallowed every line she had prepared.
By the time she arrived at the Pokémon Center carrying bags upon bags of supplies, she still hadn’t figured out how she had somehow been transformed from blackmailer into delivery worker.
…
“Cheers!”
Everyone gathered around the tables in the Pokémon Center’s backyard and raised their cups together.
Jenny might have gone from the person making threats to free manual labor who had delivered the entire party to Aiden’s doorstep, but considering the beer and the mountain of grilled meat in front of her, she decided to let him live this time.
“Hahaha!”
With a mug in one hand, Jenny slung her other arm around Aiden’s shoulders and laughed loudly.
Every so often, her palm came down heavily against his back, making him jerk forward every time he tried to eat.
Aiden quickly became suspicious.
‘She’s definitely getting revenge because she couldn’t beat me up properly last time.’
Naturally, he retaliated.
“Here, Sis Jenny!
Try this one.
It’s really good!
Don’t waste Snivy’s hard work!”
Already happily drinking, Jenny completely failed to notice the malicious intent behind his smile.
Until she bit into the skewer.
A blast of spice went straight through her mouth and into her skull.
Her first instinct was to spit it out.
Unfortunately, Aiden had prepared for exactly that.
“Mmph—!!”
“This is Snivy’s heartfelt cooking!
You’re not seriously going to spit it out, are you?”
With one hand clamped over Jenny’s mouth and the other holding back the arm she was trying to hit him with, Aiden expertly deployed the ultimate weapon:
Guilt.
Ever since arriving in the Pokémon world, he had become disturbingly skilled at using innocent Pokémon as ammunition for emotional blackmail.
“You bastard!!”
Jenny somehow forced down the skewer Aiden had personally sabotaged, then immediately took a massive gulp of beer.
The next second, she exploded.
“Why the hell are you trying to kill me for no reason?!
Die!!”
“You started hitting me first!”
The two immediately launched into another furious wrestling match.
Lacey stared at them and instinctively started to rise.
“Wait, should we—”
Before she could finish, Nurse Joy calmly pressed her back into her seat.
“It’s fine.
Those two idiots are always like this.”
Joy casually handed Lacey a handful of sunflower seeds.
“Eat these.
The show’s better with snacks.”
“…”
Lacey looked toward Sprigatito and Snivy.
Neither Pokémon showed the slightest concern.
Apparently, this really was normal.
Slowly relaxing again, Lacey settled back into her seat and watched Aiden and Jenny continue trying to murder each other across the backyard.
Her eyes began to sparkle.
‘These people are so much fun!’