Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 19: Munchlax’s Pickup Ability

He tried to stop Munchlax, but Munchlax shot him a glare that made him back off. All he could do was shout in panic:

"Whose Munchlax is this? Someone do something!"

But the passersby just exchanged glances—no one stepped forward. Each assumed someone else would help.

Seeing no one stopping it, Munchlax ate with even greater gusto. As it devoured one pancake after another, it shot Rio a smug look.

Rio gave a cold command to Charmeleon: "Charmeleon, subdue it!"

"Rua~"

Charmeleon, already fed up with Munchlax, charged at it with lightning speed. Three seconds later, Munchlax was pinned down—one claw from Charmeleon had it flat against the pancake stall. It went down quickly and smoothly, largely because Munchlax knew it couldn’t win and didn’t even bother to resist.

After finishing the last pancake, it let out a satisfied burp at Rio, as if to say, Go ahead and pay up.

"Hey kid, this is your Munchlax, right? You need to compensate me for my losses!" The stall owner came over angrily, demanding payment.

Rio ignored the owner and focused on Munchlax, which was looking at him with a defiant, smug expression. Then he smiled and shook his head: "Boss, you’ve got it wrong—this isn’t my Munchlax. I’m just a Good Samaritan stepping in."

The owner was taken aback—he hadn’t expected that. "Oh, sorry, sorry," he apologized repeatedly.

Rio continued: "No problem. I sympathize with your situation, so I suggest you call the Pokémon Police and have Officer Jenny take it in. If it has a trainer, they can pay compensation; if not, it can stay at the station for some education."

"Uh... isn’t that a bit much?" The owner’s anger turned to hesitation. It wasn’t like the loss was huge—just a dozen or so pancakes. Reporting a naturally gluttonous Munchlax to the police over that seemed petty.

"No, it’s very necessary," Rio said with righteous conviction. "To prevent it from doing this again, it needs to be punished severely—locked up in the Pokémon Police station for re-education."

He glanced at Munchlax as he spoke. By now, Munchlax was completely dumbfounded. It had never expected that Rio wouldn’t just pay up, but would actually try to get it thrown in jail. Hey—it only stole a dozen pancakes! Before, it had always taken over a month of mischief before Officer Jenny caught it.

"How about this, boss—if you don’t want to deal with it, I’ll call Officer Jenny for you and have Munchlax taken to the Pokémon Police station," Rio offered, pulling out his phone.

"Uh... sure, do what you think is best. I’ll just clean up my stall first," the owner said, wiping the sweat from his face. He hadn’t expected this guy to be so stubborn. He made up his mind to pack up and leave quickly.

Having a Munchlax arrested over a dozen pancakes—his fellow vendors would laugh at him. He’d been running this stall for years; who hadn’t had their food stolen by Pokémon before? If you’d never been robbed by a Pokémon, you couldn’t even call yourself a real vendor.

After the owner walked away, Rio looked at Munchlax again.

Now, Munchlax’s earlier arrogance was gone, replaced by sheer bewilderment.

"Rio, are you really going to turn Munchlax in?" Karen came up to him.

"Of course. Why not?" Rio shrugged.

"Once it’s at the Pokémon Police station, Officer Jenny can give it a scolding and send it back to the Pokémon House. Then we’ll be free—without it around, we can enjoy all the local delicacies to our heart’s content. I’ve heard Cerulean City has amazing ice cream, but it’s expensive. Without Munchlax, we can eat more. And also..."

"Ka~"

Before Rio could finish, Munchlax panicked, looking at him with a pitiful, pleading expression.

"You don’t want me to send you to the Pokémon Police station?"

Munchlax nodded frantically.

Rio sneered: "Hah, too late. You made a mistake, and you have to face the consequences—that’s just how it works. Unless you can compensate the owner for his losses, you’re going with Officer Jenny..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

Because Munchlax had suddenly pulled out a beautiful heart-shaped scale from its body fur—a scale shimmering with rainbow colors.

"A Heart Scale!"

Rio’s pupils contracted. He stared at the faintly glowing scale in surprise. This was a scale shed by Luvdisc—a rare item that could increase a Pokémon’s move proficiency and could also be traded at Pokémon shops for valuable items, like Revival Herbs.

"Ka~"

As if afraid Rio might still be unsatisfied, Munchlax pulled out another stone—one that seemed to burn with an internal flame.

"A Fire Stone!" Rio’s pupils widened again. He hadn’t expected Munchlax to give him such a pleasant surprise.

Suppressing his excitement, he kept his voice calm: "Munchlax, where did you get these things?"

"Ka~" Munchlax called out toward Charmeleon, which was still pinning it down. Charmeleon looked at Rio.

"Charmeleon, you can let it go."

Charmeleon moved off Munchlax. Freed, Munchlax immediately ran toward a nearby park. Rio signaled Charmeleon to follow.

"Rio, what are those two things Munchlax pulled out? I’ve never seen them before," Karen said, crouching down to pick up the Fire Stone and Heart Scale Munchlax had left behind.

Rio was momentarily surprised that Karen didn’t recognize them. Then he figured it made sense—most people in the Pokémon world only knew the surface level of things; deeper knowledge was often held by those in the upper echelons.

"They’re a couple of somewhat valuable Pokémon items, Karen. When I find a Pokémon shop, I’ll exchange them for League coins and we’ll split the money, okay?" Rio decided not to keep it all for himself, so Karen wouldn’t spread rumors later if he learned their true value.

"Sure!" Karen’s eyes lit up at the mention of money, and he handed both items to Rio.

Rio pocketed them and turned to find the pancake stall owner to pay compensation—only to see that both the stall and the owner had vanished.

"Saved some money," Rio shrugged.

A few minutes later, Munchlax and Charmeleon returned. Munchlax placed a Super Potion, some Repel, and a Charcoal—an item that boosted the power of Fire-type moves—in front of Rio.

"Ka~" Munchlax looked up at him, as if asking whether these could cover the compensation.

"This little guy sure knows how to pick things up," Rio marveled, glancing at Munchlax’s Pickup ability on its info panel.

Keeping his expression neutral, he said: "Hmm, that should cover it. Since you seem genuinely remorseful, I won’t send you to the Pokémon Police station."

Munchlax immediately flopped onto the ground like an exhausted child.

"Ka~" — That scared the hell out of me.

Rio found the sight amusing. But after a moment, he began to think about a way to increase its friendship with him.