Chapter 175

Chapter 175: Chapter 175

After finishing a simple lunch, Mike went back into Nidoking’s cave, retrieved his camera, and spent a moment checking the settings before looking toward Gengar.

"Gengar, are you ready? If everything’s set, we should get moving. There are still plenty of Pokémon waiting for us today."

Gengar tipped the remaining rice from the rice cooker straight into his mouth, swallowed it all, then launched himself into the air with an energetic bounce.

"Gar—!"

Beedrill emerged from the leaves overhead as well, while Snivy rose from her branch and prepared to accompany Mike for another day of filming.

Glameow, on the other hand, had eaten until she was pleasantly full and was already beginning to feel sleepy, so she simply returned to the cave for a nap.

Hatenna remained on the tree and called down in her soft voice.

"Haten?"

[Can I come too?]

"Of course."

Hatenna immediately jumped down.

Mike caught her with both hands and, without thinking much about it, settled her on top of his head.

The last Pokémon he had carried around like this had been Beedrill back when he was still a chubby little Weedle.

Somehow, what felt like no time at all had passed before that Weedle had grown all the way into the imposing Beedrill now hovering nearby.

Just as Mike was preparing to leave, Nidoking suddenly seemed to remember something and called out to him.

"Nido."

Mike turned around. "What is it?"

"Nido."

[I know a place you’d probably like.]

That immediately caught Mike’s attention.

"What kind of place?"

Nidoking grinned.

"Nido."

[The place where Vespiquen makes her Honey.]

Mike stared at him for several seconds before his expression darkened.

"...You’re not trying to lure me over there so I can help you steal Honey, are you?"

Nidoking shook his head furiously.

"Nido."

[No. There’s a lot of Honey there, and it looks really beautiful.]

"So it’s just a place with a lot of Honey?"

Mike turned as though he had already lost interest.

"NIDO!"

Nidoking hurried after him and grabbed his arm.

[They pile the Honey up into entire walls. It looks amazing!]

Mike stopped.

"Walls made of Honey?"

Something stirred in his memory.

The Wall of Honey.

Now that he thought about it, Eterna Forest really did have a Vespiquen whose Honey was famous for being exceptionally delicious.

In the anime, Ash and the others had even met a girl in Eterna Forest who was searching for that particular Vespiquen.

Could Nidoking be talking about the same colony?

Mike looked at him suspiciously.

"You’re not making this up?"

"NIDO!"

Nidoking thumped his chest with complete confidence.

[You can question anything else, but don’t question my professionalism when it comes to stealing Honey!]

Then he pointed straight at Gengar.

"Nido."

[He came with me last night.]

Mike slowly turned toward Gengar and narrowed his eyes.

Gengar stiffened.

Σ(°д°ﾉ)ﾉ

His expression clearly screamed, ’Why would you sell me out like that?!’

A second later, Gengar gave Mike his most innocent smile.

"Gar—"

[I didn’t take anything! We got spotted before we even reached the Honey. Nidoking was the one who took some.]

Nidoking scratched the back of his head with a foolish grin.

"Nido."

[That’s true. It tasted great.]

Mike inhaled slowly, glanced between the two repeat offenders, and finally decided that curiosity outweighed common sense.

"Fine. Let’s go take a look."

Nidoking immediately moved to the front to lead the way, but Mike called him back before they had taken more than a few steps.

"Wait. We’re all leaving just like that? What about Nidoran♀? There’s still a Pokémon Egg in the cave, and Glameow’s sleeping in there too."

"Nina."

Nidoran♀ answered from nearby.

[It’s okay. Other Pokémon won’t come here.]

Nidoking nodded as well.

"Nido."

[Don’t worry. My scent is all over this place. Ordinary Pokémon won’t come close.]

This was Nidoking’s territory, and he had already marked the surrounding area thoroughly.

That was simply how wild Pokémon survived.

Powerful Pokémon established territory and left behind their scent or presence as a warning.

Once weaker Pokémon detected it, they usually turned around and left instead of risking a confrontation.

It was similar to the way powerful predators such as tigers marked territory in Mike’s previous world.

Unless another strong Pokémon deliberately wanted to challenge the resident for ownership of the area, even most capable wild Pokémon preferred not to enter somewhere that had already been claimed.

"So that’s how it works."

Mike nodded, then lifted Hatenna off his head and placed her on Gengar’s instead.

"All right. Let’s go."

Gengar: (°△°)ツ

His expression clearly asked why Hatenna had somehow become his passenger again!

Hatenna remained quiet, but she kept staring longingly at the place on Mike’s head where she had been sitting a moment earlier.

Nidoking walked in front while Mike and the others followed.

Mike had originally planned to film Pokémon along the way, but Nidoking’s presence made that difficult.

Even when Nidoking wasn’t deliberately threatening anything, the aura of a powerful territorial Pokémon was enough to scare most wild Pokémon out of their path.

...

For quite some time, the only Pokémon Mike saw were a few Staravia flying safely overhead.

After walking for a while, Mike suddenly spotted an Arbok.

His eyes immediately lit up.

Without warning the others, he slipped into the bushes, lowered himself behind the undergrowth, and pointed his camera through the leaves.

Arbok resembled an enormous purple cobra, but unlike an ordinary cobra, its actual head was relatively small.

The broad, flattened section bearing the intimidating eye-like markings was part of its hood and upper body rather than its head.

The Arbok Mike had found was currently climbing a tree.

Above it, resting inside a nest, was a Pokémon Egg.

There was no need to guess what Arbok intended to do.

Mike did not intervene.

He was here as a wildlife photographer, and what he was witnessing was part of the natural order of the forest.

Predation.

By Mike’s estimate, the Arbok was more than three meters long, even longer than the Seviper he had filmed earlier.

Its tail, however, was much thinner and lighter, while Seviper’s heavy bladed tail looked built specifically for destructive attacks.

Mike briefly wondered whether Arbok and Seviper could coexist peacefully if the two species encountered one another in the same environment.

Seeing Mike completely focused on his camera, Gengar and the others instinctively stayed quiet.

Nidoking noticed everyone remaining still and eventually sat down in boredom while waiting for the filming to finish.

Hatenna watched Mike curiously from atop Gengar’s head, while Snivy and Beedrill remained alert for anything approaching from the surrounding forest.

Arbok climbed smoothly along the trunk, reached the nest, and opened its jaws to swallow the Egg.

A furious cry suddenly rang out from above.

Arbok instantly abandoned the prey that had been almost within its mouth and began twisting its body back down the tree.

Mike looked up just in time to see a powerful figure descending from the sky, its body wrapped in brilliant light as it aimed directly at Arbok.

’Brave Bird?’

Arbok immediately reared up and spread the pattern across its hood, trying to frighten the attacking Pokémon away.

It didn’t work.

Staraptor slammed into Arbok with Brave Bird, sending the enormous snake flying from the tree.

Arbok crashed through several smaller trees before finally hitting the ground.

Staraptor swept back into the air and let out another furious cry.

Arbok dragged itself upright and immediately fled.

Mike lifted his camera and hurried after it.

Gengar, Snivy, and Beedrill moved with him, while Nidoking scrambled to his feet and tried to follow.

Unfortunately, Nidoking simply wasn’t built for speed, and the distance between him and the others widened almost immediately.

Mike eventually found Arbok beside another water source.

The snake was drinking while covered in injuries, and Mike quietly trained his camera on it again.

Of all the Eggs Arbok could have tried to steal, it had chosen one guarded by a Staraptor.

Trying to steal from a bird that powerful when you were a giant snake was practically asking to get beaten half to death.

Arbok twisted in discomfort while rinsing its wounds.

Blood was still running from the damaged markings along its hood, and it remained by the water until the pain had eased enough for it to move again.

Mike had just started following from a safe distance when Nidoking finally caught up.

Nidoking saw Mike ahead and hurried toward him, but in his rush he failed to notice a rock beneath his feet.

He tripped hard and crashed to the ground with enough noise to echo through the trees.

Arbok immediately turned toward the sound.

Its hood spread open again, and its eyes locked onto Mike, who was crouched behind the bushes holding a black camera.

Arbok hissed in warning.

"ROAR!"

Nidoking had already climbed back to his feet.

Seeing Arbok threatening Mike, he stepped forward and roared back.

The badly injured Arbok took one look at Nidoking standing behind the human and made the sensible decision.

Without wasting another second, it twisted away and fled as quickly as its wounded body allowed.

Mike watched it disappear, slowly stood up, then turned around and smacked Nidoking hard on the head.

"You scared it away! What am I supposed to film now?!"

Nidoking clutched his head and looked genuinely aggrieved.

Only now did he understand why Gengar, Snivy, and Beedrill had hidden themselves instead of reacting when Arbok threatened Mike.

They hadn’t been afraid of Arbok.

They had been afraid that Arbok would notice them and flee before Mike finished filming.

"Nido...?"

Nidoking cautiously raised a hand.

[Then... should I go catch it and bring it back?]

Mike shook his head helplessly.

"The Wide World of Pokémon is supposed to show Pokémon living naturally in the wild. If you drag Arbok back here by force, do you really think it’s going to behave naturally for the camera?"

"NIDO!"

Nidoking responded with absolute confidence.

[Then I’ll smack it once until it cooperates!]

Mike stared at him.

For a moment, he had nothing to say.

Nidoking really was built like a warrior in every possible sense, including the part where every problem looked solvable by hitting it.

"Forget it. I’m not blaming you anymore. Go entertain yourself."

Mike looked around the forest with his camera still in hand and began thinking about the problems he kept running into while filming.

He always had to approach wild Pokémon carefully, and when something suddenly ran or flew away, he often couldn’t follow quickly enough.

He had already lost plenty of excellent footage simply because he was human and couldn’t move through the forest as efficiently as Pokémon could.

His gaze settled on Beedrill.

A small wearable camera would solve a lot of those problems.

Beedrill could pursue Pokémon that moved too quickly for Mike while continuing to record them, and because Beedrill could fly at high speed while concealing his presence extremely well, he was practically perfect for the job.

Snivy would also be useful because she moved through branches and trees with ease.

As for Gengar, Mike dismissed that possibility almost immediately.

Gengar needed to stay with him.

Someone had to protect the photographer.

"Beedrill, Snivy, next time I’ll get a couple of portable cameras for you. Would you be willing to help me film from different angles?"

Beedrill gave a quiet nod.

"Sni."

Snivy agreed just as readily.

"Perfect. I’ll ask Gholdengo later whether he knows any good compact models and have him help me buy a few."

Mike let his camera hang around his neck again.

Arbok might have escaped, but the footage he had already captured was excellent.

He had recorded Arbok hunting, the nest being defended, Staraptor’s counterattack, and the injured predator retreating afterward.

He had definitely come out ahead!

Mike turned toward Nidoking.

"Come on. Keep leading the way."

Nidoking grinned and resumed walking.

Mike eventually asked him to suppress his presence as much as possible, but even then they didn’t encounter many Pokémon worth filming.

Most of the common species in Eterna Forest had already been thoroughly documented, and Mike had so much footage of some of them that there was little reason to record more unless he found unusual behavior.

He only stopped for Pokémon he lacked enough material on, or particularly attractive and interesting individuals.

After Arbok, however, he didn’t encounter anything especially rare.