Ron subconsciously reached into his pocket, only to realize he had left the Rabbit's Foot in the pocket of his previous clothes.
"We'll see when the time comes," Ron answered a bit awkwardly.
"Still haven't made a decision?" Sandy asked. "Don't tell me you have a good relationship with every girl in town?"
Hearing this, Sailor in Sandy's arms looked up at her.
"Isn't that right, Sailor?"
"Rattata."
Sailor was just about to nod, but under Ron's gaze, it slowly shook its head.
"Rattata."
Sailor added cautiously.
To Sailor, shaking its head meant it didn't know, not that it was lying!
Sandy snorted a laugh and rubbed Sailor's head. "How come I never noticed you were so good at reading the room."
She then looked up at Ron, who was just about to head back into the tent to look for the Rabbit's Foot, and smiled. "I'll let you off the hook this time and give you a chance to stall. Anyway, on the day of the Flower Dance, you can't possibly not dance, right?"
"..." Ron asked, "Should I thank you?"
"You're welcome."
Ron silently went back to the tent, changed into his old clothes, bought the Flower Dance suit from Emily, and left directly.
"Why did you ask him that?" Emily asked.
"It's nothing, I was just wondering if I should invite him to dance this time." Sandy shrugged. "If he already has a partner, wouldn't it be really awkward to invite him that day? I'm just planning ahead."
Emily looked at Sandy, half-believing and half-doubting.
Sandy continued, "What about you? Who do you want to invite?"
"I don't know." Emily then said, "Same as always, Shane—I can't possibly fight over Ron with you, right?"
"Are you afraid of losing to me?" Sandy asked.
"Then it'll be Ron." Emily immediately changed her mind.
By now, Ron had already arrived at the desert mine. Marlon from the Adventurer's Guild was leisurely chatting with Gil nearby.
—
"I wonder what the high score will be this time," Marlon said, resting his chin in his hand and looking toward the mine entrance.
He occasionally ran into Bellossom in the mines and was quite optimistic about it.
This had also slightly changed his perspective on Pokémon.
Of course, there were also Pokémon that were very cute but incredibly powerful, like the Shaymin that helped him restore the forest. But looking at Bellossom at first glance, it looked entirely like a mascot. Just by looking at it, you couldn't tell at all that it could carry such a massive sword and easily slaughter the monsters in the mines.
"Who knows." Gil took off his hat while lying on his lounge chair. "By the way, how many unlucky souls has Harvey fished out of the mines today?"
"Five?" Marlon guessed. "He's making a killing then."
Hearing this, Gil laughed. "This is what happens when you underestimate the monsters."
As the two were talking, Marlon saw Ron walking over and couldn't help but greet him: "Good evening, here to pick up Bellossom and the others?"
Seeing Ron nod, Marlon pointed at the mine and said, "That'll probably be a while."
As long as there were no accidents midway that got them carried off to Harvey's, the participants of this competition almost always stayed in the mines until the early hours of the morning.
If it weren't for the fact that scores past midnight counted toward the next day, some participants might even stay in the mines for three days straight.
Of course, if they reached the highest score of the day, the rewards were quite generous.
Things like one of Gil's beloved hats, 200 Calico Eggs, and so on.
If they could break the record, the Adventurer's Guild would reluctantly part with a Magic Rock Candy as a reward.
This item was considered rare even within the Adventurer's Guild. Aside from occasionally getting one or two as drops from slaying monsters, the only other way to get one was from the desert merchant, who traded one for three Prismatic Shards.
Just as the two were leisurely waiting, the sound of a sword dragging on the ground came from the mine.
Gil and Marlon looked up and saw Bellossom walking out of the mine. It was dragging an unconscious Froakie—who knew when it had passed out—with one paw, while dragging its long sword with the other.
"Bellossom."
Ron hurried forward and picked up Froakie. Looking around, he spotted that Joy had set up a first-aid tent next to Harvey's, so he quickly carried the unconscious Froakie over to that tent.
"Bell."
Only then did Bellossom walk up to Gil and cry out.
"Here to submit your score?"
"Bello." Bellossom nodded.
"Alright, let me take a look—" Gil paused, instinctively reaching out to rub his eyes. The next second, he yelled in shock: "101?!!!!"
Ron, who was having Joy administer first aid to Froakie, couldn't help but glance over at the sound.
"If you need to go take care of something, go ahead," Joy said considerately.
"No, I just heard some commotion," Ron replied. "How is it doing?"
"It's very strange—" Joy frowned. "There are no wounds on its body. I even feel like its condition is better than usual..."
"?" Hearing this, Ron reached out and poked Froakie's belly.
"Froakie—"
Froakie's voice came out.
Seeing this, Ron turned on his skill to listen.
"Froakie—"
Ugh—I can't drink anymore—it tastes too awful.
Ron fell silent for a moment, slowly receiving the playback of Froakie's memories regarding this.
The timeline had to be pulled back to half an hour ago.
Thanks to Bellossom's efforts, half an hour ago, Froakie and Bellossom had reached the 100th level of Skull Cavern, where they ran into Mr. Qi, who had been waiting for a long time.
Having never seen Mr. Qi before, Bellossom warily drew its sword and attacked him.
"My." Mr. Qi reached out and blocked the attacks a few times, looking at Bellossom with a satisfied expression. "Not bad, you're even stronger than I thought."
Furthermore, they hadn't used any items like staircases from start to finish; they had entirely relied on bombing their way down to the 100th floor with Froakie.
"As a reward, I'll give this to you." Saying this, Mr. Qi took out a weirdly colored Iridium Snake Milk from nearby. "Give it a try. As long as you drink it, you'll become stronger."
"Bell?"
Bellossom warily stepped forward to sniff it. The foul smell instantly shattered Bellossom's defenses; it pulled out its long sword and watched Mr. Qi vigilantly.
"Froakie?"
Can it really make us stronger?
Out of its trust in humans, Froakie drank it down without a single doubt.
The next instant, its eyes widened, and it started to dry heave.
"Froakieee."
There's definitely something wrong with this
Bellossom thought this, but then noticed that although Froakie's face looked a bit awful, its abilities actually seemed to have improved quite a bit.
"How about it? I didn't lie, did I?"
Before Mr. Qi even finished speaking, Bellossom took advantage of the fact that Froakie was still dry heaving and poured the remaining bottle down its own throat.
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