Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 20: Taming

Rio crouched down and smiled.

Munchlax looked up, its earlier exhaustion instantly vanishing. It rubbed its chin and looked at Rio expectantly.

"Ka~" — Yes.

Rio pointed his right hand at a tree about twenty meters away.

"If you can reach that tree in ten seconds, I’ll treat you to a feast—whatever you want to eat, I’ll buy it until you’re full."

Hearing this, the anticipation in Munchlax’s eyes immediately faded, replaced by deep suspicion.

"Ka~" — Rio, you’re not trying to trick me, are you?

Rio spoke again: "Believe it or not, it’s up to you. But this opportunity only comes once. I’ll count down from ten... ten... nine... eight..."

By the time he reached eight, Munchlax couldn’t resist its craving for food anymore. Half-convinced, half-doubting, it dashed toward the tree at full speed. By the time Rio reached three, it was already there.

Rio smiled.

He had figured it out: since Munchlax had lost trust in trainers because its previous one had made promises about food to motivate it in battle and then failed to deliver, Rio’s approach would be to prove that he was a man of his word—no matter how outrageous the promise, if he said it, he would do his best to keep it.

Before long, Rio reached the tree. Munchlax was still looking at him suspiciously, wondering if he’d really follow through.

Rio smiled: "Congratulations, Munchlax. You completed the challenge I gave you. Come on—whatever you want to eat now, I’ll pay for it."

"Ka~" Munchlax’s excitement immediately returned. It dashed straight toward a barbecue stall.

"Rio? Are you really going to let it eat until it’s full here? Grandpa Fuji definitely won’t reimburse all of that," Karen said, coming up to Rio.

"Don’t worry, I have my reasons," Rio smiled and followed after Munchlax.

He’d collected quite a bit of League coins from setting up his Gym these past few days; covering tonight’s extra expenses shouldn’t be a problem.

Two hours later.

Munchlax was full. It had eaten its way through an entire street of food stalls, costing Rio over forty thousand League coins in total. Mr. Fuji could reimburse twenty thousand, but the remaining twenty thousand would have to come out of Rio’s own pocket.

After tallying the bill, Rio still felt a sting of pain. The only consolation was that at the moment Munchlax was blissfully full, he finally saw the notification he’d been waiting for.

[Munchlax’s friendship increased.]

[Friendship: -18 (from -21 to -18)]

...

The next day.

Rio and Karen continued on their way, with Munchlax and Charmeleon in tow.

Along the journey, Rio sat in the back of the truck and began deliberately training Munchlax. For example, he’d have it practice Defense Curl a certain number of times and then reward it with a Snorlax Energy Cube—which he’d bought late last night at Silph Co. Of course, he also made sure to care for Charmeleon’s feelings, buying plenty of things for it too, so it wouldn’t feel neglected.

By the time they reached Pewter City, Munchlax’s friendship toward him had risen to -14.

"Karen, are you going to find Nurse Joy first to sort out receiving those three Pokémon, or do you want to watch me challenge the Gym?" Rio discussed with his companion upon arriving in Pewter City.

Karen declined both options: "I think I’ll take some time to explore Pewter City on my own first. I heard there’s a museum here with historical exhibits—I’d like to check it out. Just give me a call when you’re done with your challenge."

"Works for me," Rio said, and they parted ways at the truck. Rio headed toward the Pewter City Gym, with Charmeleon following behind him and Munchlax trailing along like a curious little kid.

Munchlax looked left and right as they walked, scanning for tasty treats it could get Rio to buy. Before long, it spotted something good and scurried up in front of Rio.

"Ka~" — I want to eat that.

With one paw in its fur and the other pointing at a shop, it gestured eagerly.

Rio followed its gaze and raised an eyebrow. Munchlax was pointing at a shop specializing in Pewter City’s local specialty—Pewter Rice Crackers. Their effect was that one bag could cure all of a Pokémon’s status conditions.

"You sure know how to pick ’em," Rio teased.

Then he noticed Munchlax pull out a shiny golden bead from its fur.

Rio’s eyes lit up.

"Munchlax, you found another Nugget?"

"Ka~" Munchlax tossed the Nugget into Rio’s hand and gestured for him to hurry and buy the rice crackers.

"Don’t worry, I’ll get them for you. I’m a man of my word," Rio said, pocketing the Nugget and cheerfully heading toward the shop.

To encourage Munchlax to make full use of its Pickup ability, Rio had set a rule: if Munchlax wanted something from a store, it had to trade him a good item it had picked up. Thanks to this rule, he hadn’t lost too much money over the past few days—sometimes even making a small profit.

Items like Great Balls, ancient coins, and Thunder Stones had all come his way.

Ten minutes later, Munchlax had cleaned out the entire shop’s stock of Pewter Rice Crackers. Satisfied, it continued following Rio—though its eyes kept darting sideways at the unfinished bag of crackers in Charmeleon’s hand, while a few glistening drops of drool escaped from its mouth.

It wanted to snatch them, but it knew better than to try—Charmeleon was no longer the pathetic little Charmander that used to mope in the corner. So it could only stare from a distance.

After a few minutes of this, Charmeleon had had enough. It tossed the remaining crackers to Munchlax—it couldn’t stand that starving-dog look any longer.

"Ka~" — Thanks, bro.

Munchlax caught the bag with a grin and tossed the whole thing—bag and all—into its mouth. When they passed a trash can, it spat the plastic wrapper into the bin.

Then it was back to scanning the streets like a scavenger, eyes darting for more food.

They walked for over an hour before finally arriving at the Pewter City Gym. Unfortunately, the Gym doors were closed.

A young boy claiming to be the Gym Leader Brock’s younger brother came up to Rio.

"I’m sorry, but about a month ago, Team Rocket attacked Pewter City. My brother is currently investigating the matter with the League, so he won’t be available for Gym battles for a while."