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After a moment's thought, David settled on a beach barbecue.
He added several whole pre-prepared lamb carcasses to the order for roasting, along with generous portions of pork belly and beef. Shelgon's appetite was not something to underestimate — too little food and they would all be staring at empty plates before the afternoon was out. He rounded out the order with a solid selection of vegetables and fruit, because balanced nutrition mattered even on holiday, then confirmed Kirlia's two chosen desserts — caramel pudding and butter cookies — and considered the order complete.
The grilled fish Zorua had requested, he would handle himself. This was the Pokémon world, and the sea was right in front of him. Going home empty-handed wasn't a real concern. He had the Abyssal Fishing Rod, after all — a rod that had been sitting untouched in his system storage for the better part of six months and was long overdue for some use.
His father's idea of a fishing trip, David reflected, was spending an entire afternoon on the water and then quietly stopping at the market on the way home to buy two fish so the day's effort looked like it had amounted to something. That was not how today was going to go.
As it happened, the Sea God Festival tomorrow was going to include a fishing competition. David had already made up his mind to enter. A little practice beforehand seemed entirely sensible.
"Alright, everyone's coming with me — except you, Shelgon. You can sleep here."
"Rooaar!"
The sound Shelgon produced upon hearing this was, objectively speaking, the kind of roar that would have sent most people running. David, with the benefit of Aura to read the emotional current underneath it, knew perfectly well it was contentment. Anyone else walking past at that moment might reasonably have assumed something had gone wrong.
Shelgon's sheer physical presence had that effect. Standing still, he was already a considerable sight.
David finished placing the order through his Pokédex — tacking on a rental set of outdoor barbecue equipment while he was at it — and then pocketed the device and headed for the water.
He walked a short distance along the shore until he found a stretch of beach that felt right, then stopped. No baiting the water, no elaborate setup. He reached into his system storage and produced the Abyssal Fishing Rod.
It was genuinely impressive to look at. The rod's material caught the winter sunlight in a way that ordinary rods simply didn't — a faint, shifting shimmer that made its quality obvious at a glance. Several nearby fishermen looked over as he set up, and more than a few of them shook their heads.
The casting technique, they agreed silently, was that of someone who had never seriously fished in their life. What a waste of an obviously expensive rod. Whoever this kid was, he clearly had more money than experience.
David sat down after casting, waved for Zorua and Kirlia to settle beside him, and waited.
"The bait's in. Now we just let it do its job."
He did not have to wait long. Within minutes of the line hitting the water, fish began moving toward his position from every direction, converging on the bait as though they'd been called. The nearby fishermen watched this happen with expressions that shifted gradually from disbelief to silence.
In under an hour, David had two large buckets filled with sea fish.
These were the ones he'd chosen to keep. Anything too small or not worth eating had been released back into the water. He'd pulled up a Goldeen at one point and several Magikarp — which surprised no one who knew anything about Magikarp. The species turned up in rivers, in oceans, in mountain lakes, in places that had no obvious right to sustain them. There was a reason it was the most widely distributed Pokémon in the world. After a quick look, he released them all.
One catch, however, was something else entirely.
Buried among the haul was a Clamperl — close to evolution, by the look of it — and inside it was a pearl in essentially perfect condition.
David turned it over in his hand and let out a slow breath. A Clamperl pearl of this quality amplified Psychic power, and its value against a comparable Shellder pearl was no contest — at minimum ten times the price, and in practice nearly impossible to find on the open market even at that figure. The kind of item that sold whenever someone happened to have one, not whenever someone wanted to buy one.
The waters near the hotel, he realised, were almost certainly stocked. The hotel had probably arranged for harmless Pokémon and edible sea fish to be released nearby as a courtesy to guests who wanted to fish recreationally. What they almost certainly had not accounted for was a Clamperl this close to evolving wandering into the same stretch of water — and a guest with the Abyssal Fishing Rod finding it.
The value of that single pearl likely exceeded what David had paid for three nights in the presidential suite by a considerable margin. Possibly a very considerable margin.
If the hotel staff ever found out, they would not take it well.
David privately hoped they wouldn't find out.
Meanwhile, the other fishermen along the beach had had a rather different afternoon. Every fish in the vicinity had apparently decided David's line was the more interesting destination. The surrounding area produced nothing. Bucket after empty bucket. One by one, the other fishermen gathered their things and left — particularly the ones who had exchanged knowing looks earlier about the kid with the expensive rod who clearly didn't know what he was doing.
They left without saying anything. There wasn't much to say.
After a little over three hours, David decided he had enough and made his way back to where Shelgon was sleeping. The haul spoke for itself: Lucario carried two large iron buckets, one in each hand, and Zorua and Kirlia each levitated one with Psychic. Four buckets, all full.
The hotel delivery had already arrived.
"Ooh!"
Three Pelipper were waiting — each wearing a small hat in the hotel's style, a Slowpoke motif stitched onto the front. They had come loaded with spatial backpacks, which made sense given the volume of what David had ordered. The hotel's standard-issue backpacks weren't in the same class as David's own, but they were more than enough for this.
It took a while to sort through everything and lay it all out alongside the rented barbecue equipment.
When it was done, David pulled a few fish from the nearest bucket and tossed them over to the Pelipper. Tips for the delivery.
"Thanks for the trouble."
"Ooh!"
The Pelipper accepted the fish with clear enthusiasm, called out a few times in what seemed like genuine appreciation, and headed back to the hotel with their now-empty bags.
David looked over the spread in front of him — the ingredients, the grill, his Pokémon settled around him in the late afternoon light — and got to work.
The sea breeze was cool and steady. The smell of the grill hit the air, and somewhere behind it came the distant sound of waves. David reached for his drink and leaned back slightly.
It was a good afternoon.