These were air bombs Kael had made himself. They had no real destructive power—couldn't kill a person, and were completely useless against Pokémon. At first, he had created them for missions: to create diversions, to lure enemies away, or to draw the attention of wild Pokémon tribes.
The things had no real merits—other than being loud.
He never expected that, when it came to blasting fish, they would prove strangely effective. When an air bomb slammed into the surface of the sea and detonated, the shockwave rippling through the water would stun the fish and shrimp below.
"Boom! Boom…"
Kael hurled air bomb after air bomb into the surrounding sea. Before long, more than a dozen had been used up. In their wake, large fish and shrimp floated everywhere across the water's surface, stunned senseless.
Rhydon let out a cheer. One armful after another, it scooped them up until the towering two-meter-tall bamboo basket was completely filled.
"Three, six, seven—" The day's fishing-by-explosion session was over.
Kael stretched lazily atop the small wooden boat. Then he untied the rope around Rhydon's waist and leapt lightly from the boat onto its back. Hooking an arm around the spike on its back, he climbed with a few nimble movements like a monkey, settling onto Rhydon's shoulder.
One hand resting against its horn, he sat there steadily. Rhydon showed no sign of resistance. Instead, it affectionately stuck out its tongue and licked Kael's cheek, then grabbed the rope tied to the boat and began walking toward the shore.
Beneath the setting sun, along the coastline, a black-haired boy with a long ponytail sat upon the shoulder of a massive beast. It was a strange sight—yet at that moment, it felt inexplicably harmonious.
Three days of living side by side were enough for Kael to paint his own marks across the blank page that was Rhydon. It hadn't been entirely deliberate; most of it had simply been natural companionship.
These three days were also the happiest days of Rhydon's life.
Before this, its existence had been nothing more than eating, sleeping, and sitting on the beach staring blankly at the sea. The tides rose and fell, day after day. Perhaps that lonely rhythm would have accompanied it until the end of its life.
But now, for the first time, Rhydon had tasted what it meant to have someone by its side—to play together, to catch fish together, to eat delicious food together…
On the beach already sat a large bamboo basket filled with fish and shrimp. Together with the one Rhydon carried on its back, the two baskets were enough to feed it for two days.
One full basket likely weighed over four hundred jin. Two baskets—more than eight hundred. Yet to Rhydon's immense strength, it was nothing at all. Grabbing one in each hand, it charged toward the forest camp in great strides. With its 1.2-ton body sprinting forward, it swept ahead like a tank on the battlefield.
...
"Bang! Bang!"
The two brimming bamboo baskets were placed before Lulu.
These baskets, custom-made by Kael for Rhydon, stood two meters tall. The average Kirlia was about 0.8 meters; Lulu, being slightly taller than most of her kind, was only around 1.1 meters.
Before her, the towering baskets were like small hills, completely blocking her from view.
The little girl rolled her eyes and wrinkled her nose at Kael, who sat on Rhydon's shoulder stifling laughter.
She opened her left hand and flicked it backward. Instantly, the fish and shrimp in the left basket surged outward as if swept up by a gale. Then she opened her right hand and did the same—the contents of the second basket poured out in a frenzy.
A faint blue glow flared in Lulu's ruby-like eyes—the manifestation of her rapidly draining psychic power. Around her petite body, sharp, blade-like Magical Leaf materialized one after another.
"Ah! Ah!"
More than twenty Magical Leaf darted swiftly through the rain of fish, slicing with razor precision. Scales were stripped clean, bellies neatly opened—
For a moment, fish scales and entrails fell from the sky like rain.
All useless parts were discarded. Lulu had a slight obsessive streak; she couldn't tolerate even the smallest flaw in her work. Pristine, snow-white fish and shrimp meat were carefully returned to the two large baskets.
In less than 15 minutes, over eight hundred kg of seafood had been flawlessly processed.
Looking at the scales and organs littering the ground, Lulu's eyes showed visible disgust. With a wave of her hand, the debris floated up and collectively dropped into the nearby stream.
The air filled with the strong scent of fish. Lulu had prepared in advance—she pulled a mask over her mouth. The smell was still faintly there, but at least it wasn't unbearable.
Kael and Rhydon didn't care. Man and Pokémon alike were rough types; a little fish smell meant nothing.
Rhydon, however, stared somewhat regretfully at the noticeably reduced baskets. In the past, it would simply stuff fish and shrimp whole into its mouth without a second thought.
Now, after Lulu's processing, only the finest, most tender portions remained. Everything else had been discarded into the stream.
Not only must one eat to be full—
one must eat well.
That was one of the most important life attitudes Kael had taught Rhydon over the past three days.
...
The sun had long since set.
A sky full of stars and a bright, massive moon now ruled the heavens. At that moment, a brilliant meteor streaked across the night sky before vanishing somewhere beyond sight.
Lying on the grass, Kael reached up and made a grasping motion, as if trying to catch the fleeting star.
"Hey, big guy… I might have to leave this place soon," he suddenly said, gazing at the stars.
"Wuu…"
Rhydon, lying beside him, sat up and scratched the back of its head. Over the past few days, it had learned that "big guy" meant itself. But the rest of the sentence was still hard to grasp. It had never seen a human before meeting Kael. Understanding human language would take time.
Lulu floated over and settled onto Rhydon's shoulder, translating Kael's words into its mind through telepathy.
"Roar… wuu…"
The moment it understood, Rhydon sprang to its feet. Afraid of hurting Kael or Lulu, it deliberately slowed its movements. It didn't know how to describe what it was feeling; its actions were clumsy, uncertain.
"Friend… we're friends. I don't want to go back to living alone like before."
Rhydon whimpered softly, tears as large as beans welling up in its eyes.