Victor went back to the kitchen, made Cynthia a bowl of knife-cut noodles, and watched as she quietly enjoyed it. He then nodded and went to sit in the front lounge area.
Gengar, Lilligant, and Roselia sat nearby.
Gothita was in the backyard, playing with Shana, Mime Jr., and the others.
Just then, a voice came from outside the door.
"Hey, look, there's a house over there!"
"Gengar's Paradise, meow."
"Looks like... a Breeding House?"
"I'm starving, meow. I really wanna eat, meow."
Hearing the familiar dialogue, Victor had a suspicion. He stood up and went to the door.
Standing outside were three people, looking completely wretched.
No, it was two people and one Pokémon.
"Wobbuffet!"
And now it was two people and two Pokémon.
Looking at the familiar outfits and faces...
A talking Meowth, a woman with wine-red hair in a Team Rocket uniform, and a man with light purple hair.
And the Wobbuffet that had just been recalled.
Well, well. More old acquaintances.
The Team Rocket trio.
But judging by their current state, they must have just been blasted off trying to catch Pikachu, right?
Jessie, James, and Meowth looked at the suddenly appearing Victor, and the Gengar, Lilligant, and Roselia behind him.
They froze, embarrassed.
"Um..." Jessie began, fidgeting.
"Could you spare us... a little—"
"Sorry to bother you!" James immediately grabbed Jessie and Meowth and made a break for it.
"Do you want to eat?"
Victor's voice drifted over.
James stopped instantly.
The three of them returned to Victor's front door in a flash and knelt before him.
"Yes, yes, yes!" they cried, tears streaming down their faces.
Meowth, also crying, said, "You're... you're a really good person, meow."
Victor listened to their noisy chattering, which was giving him a headache.
"If you don't shut up, you don't eat."
The scene instantly fell silent.
Victor looked at them. Their clothes weren't really suitable for coming inside his Breeding House.
After all, they're Team Rocket, and the Sinnoh Champion is currently eating in my kitchen.
"If you want to eat, that's fine. But you have to get rid of that Team Rocket logo."
Hearing this, Jessie and James exchanged a look.
Victor thought they would refuse, but without a moment's hesitation, they took off their jackets and threw them aside.
Victor: ...
Alright, I overestimated you.
He led them into the Breeding House.
They followed him inside, saw how clean and tidy it was, and then looked down at themselves. They suddenly felt like they shouldn't be here.
"Um... maybe we should just eat outside?"
Victor turned and looked at James. Jessie and Meowth were nodding frantically beside him.
As everyone knows, the Team Rocket trio weren't actually evil. They never really did anything that bad.
They only had one goal: catch Pikachu.
Victor smiled to himself. Looking at them now, they really aren't so bad.
He shook his head.
"No. Just... don't reveal your identities."
He then went into the kitchen.
They followed him and saw a beautiful, blonde woman quietly eating her lunch.
Cynthia, seeing Victor return, held up her bowl.
"More."
Just two words, but Victor could swear he heard a hint of a pout in her voice.
"Coming right up," he said with a smile, and made her another bowl.
Taking the noodles, Cynthia looked at the three bedraggled figures and asked, "They are—"
"Oh, them? I just met them at the door. It looks like they've been through something terrible, and they haven't eaten, so I invited them in. You don't mind, right?"
Cynthia prodded her noodles with her chopsticks and shook her head.
"Make a lot for them. Put it on my tab," she said generously, feeling sorry for them.
"And may I ask, Ms. Shirona, have you ever paid a tab at this Breeding House?"
Cynthia blinked, her face turning slightly red. She lowered her head and went back to eating.
"So stingy," she muttered under her breath.
Victor heard her and smiled helplessly.
Cynthia certainly wasn't short on money. As the Sinnoh Champion, she was loaded.
And Victor certainly wasn't short on money for a few bowls of noodles.
It was just a little joke between them.
"Are knife-cut noodles okay?" Victor asked the trio.
Jessie and James were still stunned.
"Yes, meow! That's fine!" Meowth, seeing his partners were speechless, quickly answered.
"Hm? A talking Meowth?" Cynthia looked up, curious, and paused her eating.
Meowth just smiled and replied.
Victor listened to their conversation, letting out a sigh of relief.
Good, Cynthia didn't realize they're Team Rocket.
His hands, meanwhile, never stopped moving.
After asking a few more questions, Cynthia went back to her food.
"Do you think she's the owner's girlfriend?" Jessie whispered, huddling with James and Meowth.
"I don't know, meow. But it looks like it, meow," Meowth whispered back, sneaking a glance.
James looked at the woman eating noodles. She looked familiar.
"I know!" he whispered, his voice low. "I think that's the Sinnoh Champion, Cynthia!"
"What?!"
"Meow?!"
"What's the Sinnoh Champion doing here, meow?"
"Yeah! Are you sure you're not mistaken, James?"
"I'm not. I looked her up before we came here. That's definitely her."
"It's a good thing the owner made us change our clothes before we came in."
"You said it, meow."
Just as the three were celebrating their narrow escape, a voice nearly scared them to death.
"What are you all whispering about?"
"Ah!" The trio jumped.
Seeing it was Victor, they frantically shook their heads.
He placed the bowls of noodles in front of them. "Eat up."
Smelling the aroma, the three of them drooled, grabbed their chopsticks, and dug in.
"So... delicious—"
"You said it, meow."
"It's even better than James's cooking!"
Watching them eat and cry at the same time, Victor found it rather amusing.
As the "unbeatable" trio, some people thought they could have been the protagonists of their own show.
After all, they had a lot of charm. They were, one might say, the shame of all evil organizations.
They couldn't even catch a single Pikachu.
Victor had a soft spot for them, which is why he had let them in.
"You have to pay for your food, you know," Victor said suddenly.
The trio froze and fumbled in their pockets.
They exchanged a look.
Then, Jessie started batting her eyelashes at Victor.
"Owner, you see..."
She instantly felt several murderous glares on her.
Lilligant and Gothita were staring at her.
And so was the Vespiquen, which had appeared from somewhere.
And... the woman who was still eating her noodles.
She was smiling at her.
Jessie instantly dropped the act.
"Owner, we don't have any money," she wailed, bursting into tears.
Victor couldn't stand the noise.
"Quiet!"
He silenced their crying.
"No money? That's easy to solve," Victor said with a sinister smile.
Gengar, acting as the hype-man, floated over.
"Gengar-geh-geh-geh-geh!"
The trio instantly got goosebumps and huddled together, a sudden pain shooting through their lower backs.
It's over! We've walked into a den of thieves!
Champion Cynthia, save us!
Perhaps she heard their inner pleas.
"Ahem."
Hearing the cough, Victor dropped his expression. Gengar licked its lips.
Cynthia, Lilligant, and Gothita all shook their heads, exasperated.
"No money? Then you can stay here and work it off," Victor said flatly.
The trio exchanged a look.
"W-work?"
"That's right. Help me take care of the Pokémon in the Breeding House. You can leave once you've paid off your debt."
The three of them let out a sigh of relief.
Work? We're experts at working!
They nodded.
"No problem, Owner!"
"Leave it to us, meow!"
"Does that include meals?" Jessie asked.
"All you can eat."
"What a wonderful feeling—"
"Wobbuffet~!"
...
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