The Pokémon that originally followed Cain were Salamence, Gardevoir, Lucario, and Venusaur, but now Togekiss had joined them as well.
According to her, it was to get to know Cain better. Although, through her perception with aura power, the impression she had of Cain was not bad, it could not be said to be particularly good either.
Pokémon are very sensitive, and especially Togekiss, who possesses aura power. She could perceive the differences deep within Cain's heart.
However, after seeing Cain's attitude toward his own Pokémon, Togekiss's opinion of him slowly shifted from neutral to barely friendly.
Even so, that was not enough. She had entrusted the future of her entire clan (as well as the Clawitzer clan) to this human, so she had to shoulder that responsibility. Following Cain closely was a way to deepen her impression of him and understand him more quickly.
Ah, right—there was also the Ursaring responsible for doing miscellaneous work traveling with them, although both Cain and Togekiss completely ignored it.
Along the way, Cain did not hold back because of Togekiss's presence. He did what needed to be done. If a wild Pokémon suddenly attacked, Cain would order his Pokémon to defeat it without hesitation, and he would even enter the territory of a wild clan to plunder the resources they had accumulated.
When he left the valley where Togekiss lived, he took without hesitation all the resources that had been accumulated over the years, without stopping because they were the possessions of Togekiss and her clan. In the same way, he had no intention of restraining his plundering now just because Togekiss was present.
Although Togekiss did not approve of Cain's way of doing things, she did not oppose it either.
Wasn't that the survival method of wild Pokémon?
Survival of the fittest. Strong Pokémon obtain more resources and possess larger territories.
Togekiss had never acted like Cain, but having protected two clans in such an environment showed that she was not unfamiliar with these kinds of situations.
Being gentle by nature, avoiding trouble, and disliking combat did not mean being incapable of it.
To survive, one cannot always live according to one's own temperament, even if the entire clan risks starving to death.
That was why, although she did not agree with Cain's actions, she did not reject them either. As she herself had said, this was her process of understanding what kind of person Cain was.
Thus, aside from guiding him, Togekiss did not intervene much in his actions.
Before long, they arrived near the waterfall.
From far away, the roar of water crashing violently into the lake could be heard. The ambient humidity was high, and the water vapor was clearly noticeable. Water-type Pokémon would surely feel comfortable there, and Pokémon of other types would not feel uncomfortable either, since vegetation grew easily in a place with such high humidity.
Cain approached the waterfall with his Pokémon, but little by little he began to notice something strange.
In theory, places with abundant humidity should have rich resources and strong wild Pokémon. However, from the moment the sound of the waterfall could be heard until they reached its vicinity, they did not encounter any powerful wild Pokémon. The strongest did not even reach the Elite Four level, and the resources they possessed were pitifully scarce.
Cain frowned and looked at Togekiss beside him.
"Is there any particularly strong wild Pokémon here?" he asked. "Something that would have caused the environment to be clearly weaker than the surroundings."
There were only two possibilities.
The first: an extremely powerful wild Pokémon had occupied the waterfall, driving away all the strong Pokémon in the surrounding area, with a strong territorial awareness that prevented any approach.
Upon hearing Cain's question, Togekiss pondered. She knew quite well the powerful Pokémon near her territory. Likewise, those Pokémon also knew of her existence and did not dare approach her valley.
In the end, she slowly shook her head, indicating that she knew nothing about it.
Cain's expression grew increasingly serious.
Then only the second possibility remained: a powerful human trainer existed who had cleared this area of Pokémon and resources.
But according to what Cain knew of Steven and the others, even if a wild Pokémon attacked them, they would only counterattack that Pokémon or its clan; they would not completely wipe out the entire waterfall area.
That meant the person living here was neither Steven, nor Phoebe, nor Wallace, and with high probability neither Cynthia nor Diantha.
Cain recalled Lucario, Venusaur, and Ursaring. The simple training was over.
Salamence and Gardevoir, on the other hand, still possessed considerable strength. Even if they encountered Pokémon belonging to a human trainer, they could hold out for a while.
Cain looked at Togekiss.
"There may be combat ahead. Do you want to return to your Poké Ball for now?"
Togekiss did not know that Cain was referring to a possible confrontation with humans; she thought it would be against wild Pokémon, which did not bother her.
Even so, after thinking for a bit, she wrapped her body in aura power so that, unless one observed carefully, her true strength would not be easy to detect.
Cain understood that she did not want to return to the Poké Ball, so he did not insist. He took out a Poké Ball and released Slowking and Drapion.
They had good mobility and the ability to sense danger.
Cain mounted Drapion's back and advanced toward the rocky waterfall, while Slowking fully activated his psychic powers to watch for any powerful Pokémon approaching.
They cautiously reached the foot of the waterfall without finding anything noteworthy along the way. But beside the lake beneath the waterfall, Cain finally discovered something.
He dismounted from Drapion's back and used psychic power to envelop his feet, leaving no footprints in the wet mud along the shore.
At a spot clearly marked by human activity, the ground showed traces—footprints, human footprints, unmistakably human.
They were footprints of bare feet, with no footwear at all.
Beside the footprints were stains of red blood. It was impossible to determine when they had been left, since the proximity of the waterfall made the environment extremely humid, and the blood appeared fresh.
Cain frowned, crouched down, and touched a bit of the blood mixed with mud, bringing it to his nose.
"It's not human blood!"
Then it could only be the blood of wild animals or wild Pokémon. But there were clear human footprints, which ruled out a battle between wild Pokémon.
A scene appeared in Cain's mind: a barefoot human dragging wild animals, even wild Pokémon, to the lake, slaughtering them there and cleaning them with the flowing water.
"Yadon!"
At that moment, Slowking pointed toward the waterfall.
Cain immediately understood. He extended his psychic power toward the waterfall as well. He found no humans, but he did discover a cave behind the waterfall, with clear traces of human habitation and even many everyday utensils.
Cain led the Pokémon toward the cave behind the waterfall.
Inside, aside from the damp entrance, the interior was surprisingly dry, much more so than outside.
On the ground and hanging from the walls were hides of wild animals, probably used as blankets.
But as he went deeper, Cain saw what he least wanted to see: Pokémon hides!
Compared to those of ordinary animals, Pokémon hides and parts were clearly more valuable. Whoever lived there did not use them as ordinary rugs, but preserved them carefully.
Cain knew that many people in the Pokémon world treated wild Pokémon as mere animals, and even consumed them if it suited them.
The most well-known example was Farfetch'd, a bird Pokémon whose meat was highly prized and which even carried its own leek as seasoning. This caused its price on the black market to skyrocket to the point of near extinction, despite its low combat ability and limited growth.
Many Pokémon hunters enjoyed capturing them: low risk, high profits.
Not only Farfetch'd; other Pokémon also had culinary value. Even the Ursaring Cain had recently captured had front paws considered a delicacy.
Cain knew all of this.
But even as a member of Team Rocket, even during the harsh early days on the Trial Island, he had never eaten Pokémon.
Not out of morality.
But because, to him, crossing that line meant never being able to turn back.
(End of chapter)