Pokémon: Who let him leave Pallet Town?

Chapter 555 There's no way Joey could be here, right?

As the golden light faded, Natsume's figure appeared in a quiet alley in Feiyun City.

He was about to teleport directly into the Pokémon Center when he keenly sensed an extremely chaotic interference from the spatial coordinates he had set there, making it impossible to pinpoint his location accurately.

"No wonder the coordinates are invalid." Natsume frowned slightly and strolled out of the alley.

As soon as we arrived at the main street, a deafening roar hit us as if it were a tangible force!

The sight before him made him pause.

The plaza outside the largest Pokémon Center in Flying Cloud City, which was originally spacious, was now packed with people.

A dense crowd of people holding all sorts of signs surrounded the Pokémon Center.

The noise was deafening, with slogans, speeches, and even impromptu music all mixed together, creating a restless and enthusiastic atmosphere.

The eye-catching slogans on the banners waved like flags—"Break the Monopoly, Healthcare Freedom!", "Joey is Not the Only Option!", "We Need More Diverse Doctors!"

No wonder his telekinetic coordinates were unusable; such a dense crowd and heightened emotions would severely interfere with his superpower perception.

Natsume had sharp eyes and quickly spotted the situation on the outskirts of the crowd.

Several Officer Jennys were forming a sparse human wall, struggling to maintain order, and their faces all looked quite grim.

The person being protected in the middle, quickly boarding a low-profile official car, is Nurse Joy from the Pokémon Center in Flying Cloud City.

She kept her head down, so her expression was not visible, but her clenched fists and slightly pursed lips revealed her suppressed emotions.

A woman named Officer Jenny, who was in charge, looked around warily while speaking rapidly into her communicator. Her brows were furrowed, and her face was filled with suppressed anger and helplessness.

Clearly, she found the task of dealing with public protests rather than arresting criminals particularly difficult and frustrating.

Natsume's gaze swept over those who were clearly the organizers, giving impassioned speeches from above, but he didn't make a move on them for the time being.

His target was the ordinary people who were actually participating in the protests.

He blended into the crowd silently, like a fish swimming by, concealing all his special aura and making himself look like a curious passerby trainer.

After looking around, I found that there seemed to be very few trainers here who had a lot of contact with Nurse Joy; most of them were ordinary professionals.

"Uncle, you're here to participate in the protest too?" Natsume approached a middle-aged man who seemed agitated.

"Of course!" the uncle waved his fist. "Why should Nurse Joy be the only one in charge of the Pokémon Center?"

"My Farfetch'd was injured last time, and that Nurse Joy didn't take it seriously at all! It would have been much better if we had gotten a doctor who knows more about bird Pokémon!"

“But,” Natsume feigned doubt, “aren’t treatments at the Pokémon Center free? And I’ve heard the success rate is consistently high.”

"Free? Hmph, who knows what the price is behind it! Besides, the same old treatment methods don't care about the Pokémon's feelings at all!"

The middle-aged man was indignant, but there was a hint of confusion deep in his eyes; these words seemed more like something he had been indoctrinated with.

Natsume then turned to a young girl: "Miss, why do you support this protest?"

The girl's face shone with idealism: "I think they're right! Diversity is the most important thing! We should have more choices instead of being monopolized by one family! This is for the well-being of Pokémon!"

Her words were full of passion, but lacked concrete examples to support them, as if she were repeating some kind of slogan.

After several conversations, Natsume discovered that most of the ordinary participants were in a state of being deeply agitated yet having a blurred understanding.

They genuinely believe they are fighting for a "better future" and "the rights of Pokémon," but they have no concept of the underlying logic or the potential consequences; all their arguments are based on the organizers' one-sided propaganda.

Fortunately, if it only stays at the stage of incitement, then it's not as bad as one might imagine.

Natsume continued walking through the crowd, where signs against the Joy family were held everywhere.

A loud-voiced, plump middle-aged woman attracted particular attention.

To be precise, it was the paint on the banner the other person was holding that caught Natsume's attention.

It was not an ordinary industrial product; it looked like a natural synthetic material.

Natsume's gaze shifted downwards, landing on the middle-aged woman. She wore a loose floral shirt, her hair casually tied up, and her voice was loud enough to be heard by ten people. She was passionately preaching to the people around her, a veritable Pokémon version of "Landlady."

She caught sight of Natsume leaning closer and immediately, as if she had found a new listener, grabbed his arm enthusiastically, her voice booming so loud it made your eardrums ring:

"Young man! New here, huh? Look at our momentum! For the future of Pokémon, we must stand up!"

"Come on, eat more, eat more so you have energy!"

The older woman seemed to be in charge of the food; she was standing in a small cart filled with several ovens, all covered in flour.

The other party was very enthusiastic.

In the blink of an eye, Natsume had several small cakes in his hand.

"Auntie, you even brought your Pokémon?"

As Natsume ate his cake, he glanced out of the corner of his eye at a listless Tutu dog lying at the old lady's feet.

The dog looked very old, with sparse and dull fur, and the hair at the tip of its tail used for painting appeared dry and split.

"Of course, I've lived with my partner my whole life."

With her other hand, she carefully stroked the elderly Tutu dog lying at her feet, who seemed somewhat distracted, her tone filled with obvious affection.

“My old buddy has been with me his whole life, I know best what he needs! Those Joeys, ugh, so formulaic! Cold and aloof! They have no idea what my darling’s temperament is!”

She pointed to a protest sign on the ground with a childlike, even slightly distorted, drawing of Joey with an X on it, and proudly said:

"This sign was copied stroke by stroke by my dog, TuTu! And it knows to rebel!"

Her words and actions were filled with a contradictory sincerity—she clearly cherished her Smeargle immensely, yet she also fanatically believed in the indoctrinated ideas and involved her elderly Pokémon in a protest that it might not understand.

Natsume's lips twitched.

Clearly, this pesky dog ​​doesn't understand what's happening; it only knows that doing this will make its trainer happy.

"Transforming the Pokémon Center for a New Era!"

The middle-aged woman held up a sign and spoke in a very loud voice; she was as loud as a dozen others.

Natsume stood to the side, feeling a sharp pain in his eardrums, and turned to leave.

at this time!

"Woo——"

The old Tutu dog suddenly let out an extremely weak whimper. Its small body stiffened abruptly, then convulsed violently twice without warning before collapsing straight down, its eyes tightly closed, its breath becoming so faint as to be almost imperceptible.

The woman, who was beaming and full of enthusiasm just a moment ago, suddenly froze, her smile and fervor replaced by extreme fear and panic.

Her enormous voice suddenly erupted into a completely different, heart-wrenching, even shattering scream, instantly drowning out all the noise in the arena:

"TuTu! My baby! What's wrong?! Don't scare me!"

She suddenly knelt down, clumsily and frantically trying to pick up the limp Tutu dog, her hands trembling violently.

Natsume suddenly leaned closer, stroking his chin, and said:

"It looks like a sudden heart attack. Older Pokémon are quite common."

Upon hearing this, the woman's body visibly stiffened, and the look of fear on her face intensified.

Immediately, a voice as loud as thunder burst forth:

"Joey! Where is Miss Joey?! Help my Tutu dog!"

Natsume: "."

There's no way Joey could be here, right?

(End of this chapter)