"Hey, Dawn? Are you there?!"
"Pika Pika~ Pika~"
After agreeing to Brock's request to find Dawn in the forest, they had been wandering around the vicinity for four or five minutes, but they still hadn't seen Dawn's figure. Considering Dawn's somewhat reckless personality, Ash and Pikachu began to worry about her.
Although Dawn now had Piplup with her compared to when she had just set out from Twinleaf Town, giving her at least some ability to protect herself, Piplup was only a newly received rookie Pokémon after all, and Dawn was only a newly debuted rookie Trainer. If they encountered any powerful wild Pokémon in the wild, it wouldn't be easy for them to win.
"Seriously, where did she run off to? Should I let Staravia out to find them? But..."
Although the density of vegetation in this forest wasn't as high as the forest near Lake Verity, and Staravia still had a relatively large space to move around in it, this was ultimately not an open area. Even for Staravia, the field of vision it could see was very limited.
What if they didn't find Dawn and the others, but instead couldn't even find Staravia.
"Pi?"
Just as Ash was hesitating, Pikachu's ears suddenly twitched. It stood up and closed its eyes, listening to every tiny movement it could capture.
"Did you find something again?" Ash asked in surprise.
"Pika!"
Finally, Pikachu seemed to have reached a conclusion and quickly ran towards a certain direction in the forest with Ash. Before long, Ash actually saw Dawn and Piplup battling in a certain location.
"Finally found you..."
Ash breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked in the direction of Dawn and discovered that she was currently battling against a Buneary, and she seemed to have the idea of catching the other party.
"Piplup, Bubble Beam!"
"Piplup!"
When Ash arrived, the match had already reached the final stage. Buneary should have been hit by Piplup's skill in the previous battle. When facing the surging Bubble Beam, it didn't even have the strength to dodge, and was just blasted away.
"Now's the chance! Go! Poké Ball!"
Dawn excitedly threw her Poké Ball when she saw this. Just when she thought she was about to use her and Piplup's power to catch her first Pokémon, her hand slipped when she raised it high.
"Eh?"
"Ouch?!"
Just as Dawn made a questioning sound, seemingly not understanding what had happened, Ash's painful cry came from behind her.
"Ash? What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you that question... Why are you throwing your Poké Ball around randomly?"
Ash touched the place where he had been hit and said unhappily.
"I'm not throwing it around randomly! I'm catching Buneary! Rather, it's because you're here that you're delaying my attempt to catch a Pokémon!"
"Huh? Who's delaying you from catching it? The problem isn't with you throwing your Poké Balls around randomly? If you want to catch a Pokémon, you have to prepare an empty Poké Ball and throw it at a wild Pokémon that has lost its ability to fight. This is common sense for a Trainer! Not just throwing it around randomly. Did you want the Poké Ball to grow legs and go and catch the wild Pokémon with a bang?"
"So I just accidentally threw it wrong! Accidentally!"
"Then you should have said that properly! Why are you blaming me?"
"Because you're..."
"Piplup! Piplup!!"
Just as Ash and Dawn were arguing endlessly, Piplup on the other side had already started to make anxious noises. When the two turned their attention over, they saw that Buneary, who had fainted before, had woken up at some point and was now hopping away, preparing to escape from here.
"Crap!"
Dawn realized that this was not the time to argue, so she quickly took out another empty Poké Ball from her pocket and threw it straight at...
The bushes on the side.
"Bunny~"
Buneary made a mocking sound and then disappeared from their sight. Ash sighed in regret and said, "That's why I say, don't blame the road for being uneven if you're not good at it. No one throws Poké Balls like that~"
Dawn: "..."
Dawn glared at Ash angrily. If it had been just now, she would have had reason to refute Ash's words, but now, after making such a stupid move, Dawn couldn't continue to pass the buck, so she could only snort coldly and say, "It's just a small problem! All rookie Trainers make these mistakes. Anyway, I can naturally solve this problem in the future!"
"Don't push everything onto rookie Trainers. It's just throwing Poké Balls, this should be the easiest thing. A normal person wouldn't throw it so crookedly."
"Huh? Are you deliberately picking a fight?"
"Isn't that what you're doing? Pikachu, you be the witness."
"Pika..."
Pikachu didn't expect that it hadn't even eaten any melon seeds this time. It had been turning its face away the whole time, fearing that it would be caught in the crossfire, but it never expected that it would be dragged in even after trying so hard.
Pikachu looked at Ash with pitiful eyes, as if begging him to spare it, but Ash and Dawn, who were obviously already heated, seemed to really be preparing to take Pikachu's opinion as the key to deciding the final victory, and neither of them paid attention to Pikachu's eyes at the moment.
Piplup retreated unobtrusively behind a large tree, using it as cover to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
"Pika... Pika..."
Pikachu looked at Dawn and then at Ash, drooped its ears and hesitated for a long time before finally raising its hand with difficulty and pointing at Dawn.
"What?!"
"Hmph~! I knew I was right!"
Dawn looked triumphant. It seemed that Pikachu's support had also surprised her, but since she had won, she naturally had to show off a bit.
"That's really strange~ Why would Pikachu choose to support me? Logically speaking, isn't Pikachu your initial Pokémon? That means that in its experience, rookie Trainers can't do that kind of thing, right? In that case, I'm curious~ You weren't just chased by Spearow back then, right? You must have done something even more embarrassing that you didn't say. Hurry up and tell me so I can hear it~ Hmph~"
....