Chapter 223: Fishing
It was another morning.
"Lorelei, Piplup, wake up! Aren't you two going to the town's fishing competition today?"
Lorelei's mother's gentle voice called out.
Will had just groggily opened his eyes when the world started to spin.
!
"Lorelei! Look at your sleeping posture!"
Smack! Smack!
Lorelei's mother walked over angrily and spanked Lorelei on the bottom, slapping her awake.
Then, she bent down and picked up Will, who had been kicked off the bed by Lorelei, and gently wiped his face.
Will yawned, enjoying the soft, warm embrace.
It had been a week since he arrived at this new home. He had already figured out the family's personalities and jobs.
Dad was a former professional Trainer, having participated in two regional Conferences, getting to the Top 32 and Top 8, respectively. He was now a transporter working between the Sevii Islands. He was a refined man with a surprisingly open-minded way of thinking.
Mom ran the fruit shop downstairs, selling fruits her husband brought back from the other islands. As long as Lorelei and Will didn't cause trouble, she was very gentle.
But the moment they made a mistake... Will would immediately know where Lorelei got her habit of hitting people from.
As for Lorelei, she had inherited neither her father's refinement nor her mother's gentleness. But that's not to say she had no good qualities. She was strong-willed and brave, which was a decent trait to have.
After the two little ones were dragged to the bathroom by their mother to have their faces scrubbed, they were finally wide awake.
"Piplup! Let's go!"
The fully-awake Lorelei was brimming with energy. She slung a small fishing rod over her back, grabbed a little Piplup-shaped lure, and bolted out the door.
Will waddled after her on his two short legs.
He was past his "infant" stage now. And, having passed it, he had confirmed something.
There was a problem with his body.
The average height for a Piplup is 0.4 meters, but Will was currently only 0.3 meters. Being 10 centimeters shorter didn't sound like much. But to put it another way, he was 25% shorter than other Piplup, which was a big problem.
A Piplup's size isn't affected by gender, and his diet during his infancy was definitely not lacking nutrition. So, the only reason for his height not meeting the standard must be a physical issue.
Even in his first life as a Weedle, Will had eventually managed to catch up and even surpass his peers in size through proper nutrition. His second and third lives, of course, were never lacking in the size department.
Only this life... he wasn't even average.
However, only Will himself had noticed. Lorelei's family hadn't. They had never seen another Piplup, so they had no idea what the normal size was. And even if they did, the difference between a 30cm penguin and a 40cm penguin probably wouldn't seem like much to them. They might even think smaller was cuter.
For now, Will didn't think it was a major issue. This small size wasn't from malnutrition; it was likely genetic. His body's energy reserves weren't any smaller than a normal Piplup of the same level.
He needed to start battling soon. And after battling, he would inevitably have to go to the Pokémon Center. He would just have Nurse Joy check his body then. All seven of the Sevii Islands had a Pokémon Center, even the smallest, Four Island, so Will wasn't too worried.
Will and Lorelei ran all the way to the beach.
The fishing competition on Four Island had drawn a decent crowd. There were even some fishing fanatics who had come all the way from other islands to compete. For most of them, the prize didn't matter. They just loved the thrill of catching a fish and showing it off.
But for Lorelei, she was here specifically for the prize.
"Mom said she won't buy me Poké Balls until I'm ten, so I'll win my own!" Lorelei pumped her little fist, then looked at the little penguin beside her. "Piplup! When I hook a fish, it's all up to you!"
"...This is risky."
Will felt a little nervous. The participation prize was a single, standard red-and-white Poké Ball. To qualify as a "participant," you had to at least catch one Water-type Pokémon with the Poké Balls provided by the competition. If you couldn't even catch one, you were just a spectator.
And those Water-type Pokémon weren't going to let themselves be caught quietly after being reeled in. Will would have to defeat them first.
Thank goodness for egg moves...
Will glanced at his status panel. He was only Lv. 5. Besides his egg moves, he only knew Pound and Growl. Trying to win with those two moves at his level would be tough, even for him. He still wasn't used to this body.
But at least he had Hone Claws and his Aura Power. If he ran into a low-level Pokémon, or even a Magikarp, it wasn't impossible.
While Will was preparing, Lorelei had already started fishing. The little girl stood at the water's edge, full of hope, her eyes glued to the surface.
Will yawned. The last person he'd seen fish with a lure was Corphish. The problem was, Corphish had decades of fishing experience. Lorelei was eight. Their skills weren't comparable.
Will figured it would be a while, so he plopped down on the sand to sunbathe.
Of course, he only looked like he was sunbathing. In reality, Will was trying to use his Aura Power for other things. Right now, he was attempting to use his Aura to improve his body's potential.
Although it was having no effect, it at least increased his proficiency with Aura, which would help him do more later.
Nearby, many of the bored grandpas, grandmas, uncles, and aunts watching the competition couldn't help but smile fondly at the two little ones.
"Piplup! How can you be so lazy! By the time you stand up, the Pokémon will be long gone!" Lorelei looked at Will, frustrated at his lack of effort.
"It's not that easy. You overestimate yourself," Will thought, waving a flipper lazily.
His Aura Power was active. The range was small, but he could sense the water in front of Lorelei. Forget Water-type Pokémon, not even a regular fish was coming close. Only a few crabs scuttling on the sand seemed remotely interested in the lure.
It's just like an advanced form of perception... Will's beak curved into a smirk.
Aura Power was far stronger than he'd imagined. Just this sensory ability alone would improve his reaction time in battle, allowing him to dodge attacks or predict an enemy's movements. And this was only the most basic ability of Aura. The future of Aura was worth looking forward to.
"Seriously, you lazy duck!"
"I'm a penguin," Will thought, shaking his head, not bothering to argue with her. He hadn't mastered Aura-based "communication" yet. Once he did, talking to people wouldn't be such a hassle.
Time ticked by.
Forty-five minutes passed. The competition was an hour long. In that 45 minutes, Lorelei hadn't just failed to hook a Pokémon; her line had barely even twitched.
"Aa-yawn..." Will sat up, already prepared to go home. Looked like he could get an early afternoon nap.
"Ugh..." Lorelei stared intently at the water, making a sound of pure frustration.
"Sigh, look at you." Will glanced at Lorelei's red, pouting face, shrugged helplessly, and snatched the fishing rod from her hands. "I'll do it."
Will wasn't bragging about his fishing skills. He might not be on the level of Corphish or Tom, but he had lived in Ever Grande City for ten years and had been out sea fishing with them countless times. His technique was, at the very least, far better than Lorelei's.
"Piplup?!" Lorelei yelped, not knowing what he was doing. She immediately tried to pick him up and get the rod back.
However, in just those five or six seconds, Lorelei saw the tip of the rod bend sharply.
"Take it. Pull!" Will tossed the rod back into Lorelei's hands and hopped on the ground.
He hadn't battled another Pokémon since the fight with Lugia. He felt a little rusty.
But for him, fishing like this was perfectly natural.
He could "see" everything under the water with his Aura—where the fish were, how far they were from the hook, whether they were biting. If the fish wouldn't come to the hook, he'd just take the hook to the fish. If his flippers weren't so short, he'd just toss the hook right into its mouth and yank it out.
"From that struggle... it's not a strong Pokémon," Will thought, shaking his flippers. He signaled Lorelei to reel it in fast before it got away.
A Water-type Pokémon wasn't a normal fish. Even a Magikarp was smarter than a regular fish. It could break free of the hook in just a few seconds.
"Hiyah!" Lorelei gripped the rod with both hands and pulled back.
Say what you will, but the little girl's usual violence and brute strength really came in handy at a time like this.
Splash!
The crowd turned to look, though their expectations were low. They were mostly just watching because two little kids fishing was cute. Any angler with a bit of experience could see that this corner of the beach was not a place where you'd find rare or strong Pokémon.
The Pokémon from the water revealed itself.
It was a Remoraid.
"Huh?! It's a Remoraid!"
"It's rare to see one in water this shallow."
"That's pretty lucky, but can that Piplup even beat it? Remoraid are tricky."
Remoraid weren't rare Pokémon. There were tons of them in the ocean, and they had symbiotic relationships with many other large Pokémon. But... that was in the deep sea.
A Remoraid appearing in the shallows was about as rare as a wild Piplup appearing on Four Island.
Because of this, many people, hearing the commotion, began to wander over.
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