Chapter 89: Pokémon Registration
Dragonite Three wasn't flying particularly fast.
It wasn't for lack of effort; the load was just a bit heavy...
At this moment, he was carrying Arthur in his arms. Arthur, in turn, was holding the young Little Lapras. And perched on Little Lapras's neck was Celebi.
To top it all off, Frogadier was perched on Arthur's head.
Since the Poké Ball had been broken earlier, they could only travel in this stacked, human pyramid formation for now.
To still be able to occasionally use the move "Extreme Speed" for travel under such a heavy load, Dragonite Three truly proved himself to be a reliable adult Pokémon, a high-quality male of the Dragon clan.
However, after traveling like this for the better part of the day, Dragonite Three was finally reaching his limit.
Fortunately, at this point, human vessels could already be seen on the distant sea.
Human activity had been frequent in the reserve recently—mostly rescue teams dispatched by Skyspire, searching for survivors from the cruise ship incident.
Although that ship had exploded and sunk, thanks to the three Dragonite ceasing their attack in the end, the number of survivors was considerably higher than expected.
Additionally, because Arthur's actions upon boarding the ship had agitated the Stitched Shadow Army kidnappers, frightening them into retreating prematurely, it directly caused the final 'clean-up' (killing witnesses) work to not be carried out as planned, which allowed even more people to survive.
In a way, Arthur had accomplished a great meritorious deed.
The praise he was now receiving online could be said to be thoroughly well-deserved.
Subsequently, Dragonite Three landed in front of one of the rescue teams, immediately drawing a wave of astonished cries.
"Oh, my heavens! It's a Dragonite! Such a huge Dragonite!"
Following this, Dragonite Three placed Arthur and the three Pokémon onto the rescue boat, finally giving his own aching short arms a much-needed break.
Upon seeing Arthur, the rescue team members became even more excited, their shouts even louder than when they had just seen the Dragonite.
"Oh, goodness gracious!! You're Arthur?! Thank heavens, you really are still alive! This is truly wonderful!"
Arthur looked at the person before him with a puzzled expression.
He clearly didn't recognize any of these rescue team members.
"You... know me?"
The person in front of him laughed heartily, "Haha, of course, we all know you. Little bro, you don't know yet, do you? You're famous now, super famous! You're an Alliance hero!"
A hero...
In the past, Arthur had often heard others call him that. But after transmigrating, this was the first time he had received such high-level praise.
For a moment, his emotions were somewhat complex. He could only offer a shy smile in response.
It was fortunate that this rescuer didn't mention his actual current online nickname; otherwise, Arthur's expression might have become even more complex...
After boarding the rescue team's boat, Arthur's return journey instantly became much smoother.
However, something puzzled him slightly: Dragonite Three didn't part ways with him here but instead continued to follow their boat.
"Don't you need to go back?" he asked.
Dragonite Three, currently lying prone behind the rescue boat to recover strength, holding a rescue rope in his mouth and being towed along, lazily floating flat on the sea surface like a lazy sloth, replied listlessly.
"I'm going with you to the mainland for a bit. You'll still need our help when you return to the Alliance. It just so happens I can make the trip over."
"What do you mean?" Arthur didn't understand.
Dragonite Three continued to bite the rescue rope, maintaining his 'sloth flat-lying style' trailing behind the boat, and replied muffledly.
"You'll understand when you go to register Lapras. Those Milotic fly too slowly. It had to be me to go with you."
At this moment, his 'sloth biting a hook' posture made his claim about others flying slowly completely unconvincing...
But this was also because carrying passengers while flying was genuinely tiring.
Normally, a Dragonite's stamina is excellent. They can maintain the "Extreme Speed" skill almost continuously like a constant buff, achieving long-distance flight speeds that rival the latest human Boeing 9-series large passenger jets.
Occasionally looking down on the speed of Milotic was quite normal for them.
Although Arthur still didn't quite understand, since it concerned Little Lapras, he didn't press the matter further.
It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that he finally, after a long absence, set foot on land again.
He politely declined the rescue team's request to take him for an interview. Arthur first needed to buy a new phone—his previous one had decisively perished when it fell into the water—then purchase new Poké Balls, and also go to the Pokémon Center to register Little Lapras.
In this current era, Pokémon weren't something you could just casually catch and bring home to raise.
Even raising an ordinary pet required registration and vaccinations; raising a Pokémon necessitated even stricter supervision.
There was even mandatory insurance required, not only for the Pokémon itself but also to provide a relatively convenient means of accident compensation should your Pokémon accidentally injure someone.
After all, if a Pokémon were to lose control, its destructive potential could be far greater than that of an average cat or dog.
Frogadier, having evolved, also needed to be re-registered, but that was a relatively simple process.
Little Lapras, being another entirely new Pokémon captured by Arthur, involved much more complex procedures.
Especially since Arthur only learned a crucial piece of information after arriving at the Pokémon Center.
"You're saying Pokémon from the reserve can't use the simplified registration procedure?"
The Pokémon Center staff member looked at him with a troubled expression.
"Yes, that's correct. The standard simplified Pokémon registration procedure requires a Pokémon birth certificate issued by a free-range center or a breeding base."
"As for Pokémon originating from a reserve, in order to avoid potential disputes with their original clan, and also to prevent poaching, abduction, and other malicious activities, the principle is that the capturer must provide proof from the Pokémon's maternal clan consenting to the Pokémon leaving the reserve."
It was clear that this staff member was also finding the situation very difficult now.
In all his years working here, this was the first time he had encountered such a case.
In the current era, the number of Pokémon in the human world was already very large, and Pokémon in the reserves had also seen the world. Nowadays, people still thinking about abducting Pokémon from reserves were truly very, very few.
This staff member clearly looked like he had 'lived long enough to see everything now'.
Finally, he added in a hushed voice.
"You're Arthur, right? The Harpoon Hero of Crescent Bay. I actually recognize you too. You're super famous online right now!"
"I know you wouldn't be the type of person who poaches. I've already requested guidance from my supervisor for you. But you should at least symbolically provide some kind of evidence. Just a little bit, anything will do."
"..."
Just as Arthur was feeling helpless, he suddenly recalled Dragonite Three's words from the journey.
That goofy fellow wasn't talking about right now, was he?
So, he spoke to the staff member, "Uh, later, could you please ask your supervisor to come outside for a moment?"
"Eh, what? Oh, okay. But what is the purpose of going outside?"
Arthur didn't answer. Just after the Pokémon Center supervisor arrived, they went together out onto the main street just outside the entrance.
Arthur blew a whistle as arranged.
The sharp sound caused the Pokémon Center staff, the supervisor, and surrounding pedestrians alike to frown and cover their ears.
Just as they were wondering what this was all about...
A short while later, a fierce wind began to blow violently overhead, the air pressure becoming intense!
When everyone regained their senses, a giant, imposing yellow dragon, standing over three meters tall, had already slowly descended to land beside Arthur.
In that instant, the entire street erupted into chaos. Countless people scrambled to take out their phones, frantically pressing shutters to take photos.
Gasps of astonishment and screams rose one after another.
"Holy crap?!! What am I seeing?! A Dragonite! Such a huge Dragonite!!"
"Honey! Quick, come out and see the pseudo-legendary! It's a wild one, and it's huge!!"
Dragonite Three lowered his head.
In that moment, the Pokémon Center staff member and the supervisor both stood with their mouths wide open, dumbstruck like wooden chickens, unable to utter a single word.
(End of Chapter)
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