Chapter 95: Entering the Kanto Region
Scouting the sea route was a boring affair.
At first, Will found it fun to swim around underwater and look at the different aquatic Pokémon. But after a while, it started to get tedious because ninety-nine percent of the Pokémon in this sea area were Water-types from the Kanto and Johto Pokédexes. There were some from other regions, but they were few and far between. Seeing the same Pokémon over and over again naturally became tiresome.
If he were exploring the unknown depths of the deeper ocean, perhaps he would have found it more interesting. But constantly surveying the shallow coastal areas was, of course, dull.
"It's quite safe, though. There aren't any particularly powerful Pokémon."
Will set out from the coast of Jubilance Town and headed east. Along the way, he didn't encounter any Pokémon he couldn't beat; the strongest he found were only around Lv. 40. What he encountered more often were the local Pokémon herds. Among them were some aggressive and troublesome groups, like a swarm of Tentacruel.
Considering that the army might be attacked by them when passing through, Will took the initiative to give them a round of "shock therapy," forcibly driving them to another area.
The Tentacruel species was rather pitiful, really. The Pokédex describes them as: "When they appear in large numbers, which is rare, all the fish Pokémon in the surrounding waters disappear." Because of this, many uninformed trainers assume that Tentacruel indiscriminately attack any fish Pokémon around them, even killing them when they're not hungry. Combined with the fact that they aren't particularly beautiful and their fighting style seems quite cruel—they don't kill their prey immediately but inject it with venom that causes sharp pain, allowing it to weaken in agony—their reputation wasn't very good, even in the Era of Leagues.
An ordinary trainer would never consider catching a Tentacool or Tentacruel to raise.
But in reality, the species was misunderstood. They usually live in complex underwater rock formations and won't attack unless you enter their territory or provoke them. Misty, a lover of Water-type Pokémon in the anime, knew this very well, which was why she immediately refused when a rich old woman wanted to hire Ash and his friends for a million dollars to drive away a swarm of Tentacool.
There was also a funny scene in the anime where a Tentacruel strolling in a river and another strolling on land accidentally met, and both were so scared of each other that they ran for their lives, as if they had seen a doppelgänger. Many signs indicated that the Tentacruel line was no different from any other Pokémon and was actually quite cute.
As for why the Tentacruel here were driven away by Will, it was out of necessity. Their territory just happened to be right on the sea route he had planned. He didn't want to make a special detour, as who knew what trouble might be lurking in more distant waters. So, he could only drive them away.
To humans, a Tentacruel was one of the most terrifying predators in the sea. If you were caught by their tentacles and dragged into the water, you couldn't live and couldn't die. It was precisely because humans lost most of their ability to resist once they entered the sea that they had always feared it so much. If Will hadn't been powerful enough and skilled in underwater combat, the Dragonite Kingdom might not have had anyone who could take on the task of scouting the sea route, and Liz would have had to abandon her plan for a flanking maneuver.
But it was also for this reason that Liz believed the Kingdom of the Land would never expect them to attack from the sea. Given their situation over the past few years, having to deal with the external threat of the Viridian Forest and internal threats within their own country, they absolutely would not have had the spare capacity to worry about the ocean.
Scouting... no, it should be said that pioneering the sea route was much faster than Will had expected. In just three days, he had opened a sea passage from Jubilance Town to the land of Kanto. All he had to do now was come back and check it once more a day or two before the army set out.
"What should I do with the rest of the time? Why don't I... sneak into the Kanto region and see? Maybe I can gather some intelligence," Will thought, an idea forming in his mind.
The next day, he flew from the sea into the Kanto region. However, he didn't rashly enter the capital of the Land Kingdom, the future Viridian City. He chose to head further east, to a coastal city that would one day become a world-famous metropolis: Fuchsia City.
Fuchsia City's fame wasn't just due to the Poison-type Elite Four member, Koga, but mainly because it was home to the Kanto region's largest Safari Zone. The Safari Zone was a general term for special wild Pokémon reserves found in various regions. They contained many rare wild Pokémon, and often Pokémon from non-native regions would appear there. What made these places special was that trainers could pay a fee in exchange for special Poké Balls and enter to catch Pokémon. Any method was allowed, except for battling.
But the Fuchsia City of now was probably just Fuchsia Town at best, or even a village.
"I think I'll pass Cinnabar Island on the way, but never mind. The people of this era don't dare to leave the mainland for too long. They probably haven't even discovered its existence yet. It's likely a Pokémon paradise," Will thought, glancing south but giving up on the idea of a detour. If he ran into Groudon, that would be a real mess. Cinnabar Island had a volcano, and at some point in the future, it would erupt without warning, completely annihilating the town. No one knew why it erupted, and Will had no intention of investigating at this point in time. Any isolated island with a volcano could be Groudon's bedroom, and he couldn't guarantee that the Groudon of this era wasn't using Cinnabar's volcano as its bed.
He continued to fly forward. Even with the boost from Extreme Speed, it still took him a considerable amount of time to fly from Jubilance to Fuchsia. He had set out in the morning and arrived around noon. But this was within his expectations. The journey from Jubilance to Fuchsia was nearly two-thirds of the way across the Kanto region.
When he saw the ground, he didn't land right away but flew around for a while longer. It took some time before he finally spotted "Fuchsia City."
"This can only be called Fuchsia Village..." Will thought, shaking his head. He landed in a small grove of trees surrounding the settlement.
This Fuchsia Village looked just like Pallet Town from the anime. The houses were spaced several miles apart, and he could see some humans farming in the fields.
"Hey? Where did this big guy come from? Are you here for something to eat?"
Suddenly, a voice from nearby made Will jump. He turned his head and saw a young man with purple hair in a short tree.
"Whoa~ you're huge! Where did you come from?" The person then jumped down from the tree and came over to Will, sizing him up.
"...ROAR!" Will spread his arms and roared at the person.
"...You're hungry?"
To his surprise, the young man wasn't scared at all. He looked down at Will's stomach, then frowned and took out a few berries. "You look like you can eat a lot. This should hold you over for now."
Will took the berries and started gnawing on them. It was lunchtime, and he was indeed a little hungry. As for why this man wasn't afraid of him...
Well, I guess every world has some naturally bold hotheads, Will could only conclude.
"Haha, come with me. But you can't roar like that again, okay~ You're so big, you might scare the other little ones," the young man said with a smile, patting Will's belly and gesturing for him to follow.
"Hm?" Will looked at him curiously. If he wasn't mistaken, this person wanted to take him into the village. To be honest, he thought his appearance would scare the other people to death.
"What are you standing there for? Don't be afraid. Everyone here is very nice. They won't dislike you," the young man said, turning back and waving, a bright, sunny smile on his face.
"...I'll just have a look," Will hesitated for a moment, then began to follow. He felt this person was very strange, but he didn't seem to be the same type of hothead as Ash. Perhaps following him would shed some light on the situation.
And what happened next left him completely stunned.
"Yo, where'd you pick up this big baby?"
"You've got guts, Ren, bringing such a huge beast home. Aren't you afraid it'll eat you out of house and home?"
"Yeah, look at the size of that belly! It could probably fit my Miltank in it!"
As the young man, Ren, led him through the village, the surrounding villagers were not only unafraid but even started to tease him. They didn't look at Will like a "beast," but more like a small cat or dog.
And Will noticed something else. From their words, it seemed that the villagers of Fuchsia Village were all raising... no, it should be said, living alongside Pokémon.
What was going on?! Will looked at the young man beside him in shock. He remembered that the attitude towards Pokémon in the Kingdom of the Land wasn't supposed to be this good.
This village was not ordinary.
"We're almost there. My house is just ahead," Ren said, pointing to a small wooden hut. The hut was so small that Will probably couldn't even fit inside. And yet, in the small yard of this poor-looking young man, he was raising several... special Pokémon.
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