Rain

The rain came down suddenly. The weather was like a child's face, changing without hesitation.

Rope dragged the blanket out of his backpack. Then he draped it over Whitley. He didn't need it for himself, but Whitley did. After all, Whitley was still normal after all.

"Cold?" Rope sat down beside Whitley, then drew two sticks of firewood from his hand and threw them into the fire.

Whitley hugged Growlithe, feeling the warmth of Growlithe's body, and shook her head, "It's not cold," she looked at the not-so-small rain falling outside, "This rain is really sudden."

Rope nodded, it was indeed sudden. He didn't feel any other energies in this rain though, so it should be natural.

Of course really, like Lugia, Kyogre, and even Manaphy could do natural rain without any fireworks.

But of course Rope didn't think it had to be one of the Legendary Pokémon again.

After all, it was fairly normal for it to rain in this season, given the climate of the Kanto place.

"Luckily, it's not far from that village we just passed, and there's this abandoned house to keep the rain off." Whitley's eyes shifted from the rain outside the door to this house.

The house was dusty and had obviously been abandoned for a long time. But the good thing was that the whole thing was still intact, so there wouldn't be any leaks or other conditions. And there weren't any Ghost-type Pokémon or ghosts inside either.

So it was only natural for Rope and the others to stay and take shelter from the rain.

Rope nodded and said, "Indeed, it can only be said that we're lucky."

...Or rather, Whitley's luck was good... after all, this would never have been so good if Rope himself.

Let's just say that Rope was more optimistic...

Suddenly, Growlithe raised his head warily, carefully breaking away from Whitley's arms, then stood in front of Rope and Whitley thinking about the rain outside the door and called out, then took up a stance ready to attack.

Whitley subconsciously glanced at Rope, who frowned slightly, but naturally gestured toward Whitley, signaling her to be at ease.

Whitley saw that Rope did not mean to be nervous, and was also relieved, and then looked at the dense rain curtain in front with a curious look.

In the curtain of rain, a silhouette gradually appeared, growing larger from far to near. Obviously the other party was also advancing towards this house.

This place was close to the village but it was already considered a wilderness. Whitley couldn't help but be nervous. So she glanced at Rope again.

Rope reached right out this time and rubbed her head.

Growlithe's hind legs tensed and the front half of her body crouched to the ground, teeth bared, but not yelling anymore.

"Dare I ask Your Excellency..."

Rope had just opened his mouth to speak, and before he could finish, he was interrupted by a man's flirty male voice.

"My friend, when you're out and about, don't be so hostile towards strangers! I'm just here to get out of the rain."

With that, he had walked through the rain to the eaves of the door.

Rope and Whitley got a good look at the person on the other side this time.

The other party was wearing a long black trench coat, with a certain bowler hat, but the trench coat was not buttoned up, but open, inside was a light blue leisure suit, the man's looks were quite young, looked only about 30 years old, looked and was very handsome, creamy boy and mature uncle temperament mingled together surprisingly did not have any too much of a sense of incongruity.

The man held up his hand to show that he didn't mean any harm.

"I'm just here to get out of the rain. I'm sure if our roles were swapped, you'd wish you could enter the room and then converse with me in front of a warm fire."

The man's smile was flirtatious and his tone even more so, it simply matched his face in a special way, as if that was the tone he was supposed to have.

"If our roles were reversed, I'm sure you'd make the same choices we did; after all, in the wild, trusting random strangers is the beginning of death and misfortune."

Rope had the same smile on his face before disliking the man back nonchalantly.

The man spread his hands and said, "Alright, young man has a good mouth, I'm in too cold to argue with you so...can I go inside and get a fire going?"

Rope looked the man up and down and made a pensive gesture.

The man didn't rush, and whistled towards Growlithe, who seemed very nervous, teasing Growlithe.

After a long while, Rope smiled, "Sit down then, but I'll keep Growlithe by your side to keep an eye on you. And I hope you understand," Rope said as he stroked Whitley's head, "After all, I'm traveling with my sister, and I have to act a little more carefully."

The man then turned his head towards Whitley and greeted him, Whitley nodded politely at him.

The man turned back to Rope and said rather emotionally, "Oh you did the right thing, if I was traveling with my own beautiful and lovely sister I would have been extra careful as well."

Rope nodded and smiled, "It's good that you understand!"

Rope then pointed to the seat across from him, "Have a seat, look at your clothes you are also soaked take off your jacket and roast it by the fire."

The man curtsied, still giving off some flirty vibes but much more proper.

"Thank you for your generosity."

With that said he took off his trench coat and held it in his hands then moved two boards that had been strewn about the floor of the room close by and with a little work a simple coat rack was completed. The man put his bowler hat and trench coat on the rack. Then sat right down on the floor.

Rope looked at the man who sat down on his butt and asked, "Seeing that your suit should be quite expensive, is it so unloved?"

The man's suit didn't take off, and on closer inspection it actually didn't get wet, only at the pant leg that saw a slight spot of mud. There was also mud on the leather shoes.

The man waved his hand, "What's the point of having clothes and stuff if they're so inconvenient? What you wear is what you wear, there is no such thing as precious or not. Real rich people wear expensive clothes not to show off, but for comfort. If you can't do this or that because the clothes are expensive, then why buy such expensive clothes to restrain yourself?"

Whitley couldn't help but nod her head, thinking the man had a point.

On the other hand, Rope on one side rolled her eyes and said, "What you're talking about is something that only the very rich, who basically don't have any upward mobility, would do. Clothes are social items in some people's eyes. It's only natural to buy an outfit at a price you can afford to struggle with, in order to gain a greater benefit than the price paid for the outfit."

Whitley had couldn't help but nod, she thought Rope had a point there too.

"Oh~" the man spared a glance at Rope, "Little brother, you know a lot!"

"A little bit, just a little bit." Rope looked rather embarrassed and smiled.

"My name is Remo, I'm from Kalos region, I'm a merchant who came to Kanto region for traveling."

Said Remo as he extended his hand towards Rope.

Rope shook Remo's outstretched hand and said, "My name is Ou and this is Megumi, we are from Kanto and are fed up with the constraints of our homes and have come for an outing."

Remo looked at the "brother and sister" in front of him, withdrew his hand, and then smiled, "Really? Then you guys still have some guts."

"I think so too." Rope similarly withdrew her hand and said with a smile.

Whitley naturally knew Rope was lying. But she couldn't tell if what Remo said was true or not.

To Whitley's eyes, all she could see was two big sly foxes smiling at each other.

"Is the weather always this weird in the Kanto region?" Remo saw that the atmosphere was getting a bit chilly, so he started the conversation again.

Don't kid yourself, really letting him keep his mouth shut idly was going to suffocate him? But to be honest, really, the almighty topic of pleasantries was bound to remain the weather.

"Weird? It's alright. It's better than the Galar region, forest or city, Galar always has a lot of rain and fog."

Rope looked up and thought back for a moment before adding, "Today's weather is pretty weird though. Usually if it rains there has to be at least a cloudy day to signal a warning. As it turned out, the rain did fall too suddenly today."

"Maybe fate brought us together?" Remo joked a bit coldly.

"Could be, haha." Rope laughed in a rather appropriate manner as well.

Whitley, off to the side, laughed along with him. The whole abandoned house began to fill with a joyous atmosphere.

"Remo why are you traveling to Kanto?" Rope finally began to initiate questions.

Remo smiled, seemingly satisfied.

"It's because I have traveled to the Johto region before to get my goods. But unfortunately my goods were cut off halfway, so I went to the Johto region for a break."

"Oh~ so. Did you call the police then? I remember the police in Johto area are still great. They should still be able to get the goods back if they help you look for it."

Rope said with a serious face, "After all, the Elite Four in the Johto area are still serious."

Remo laughed, "Of course I called the police, that's why I traveled here when the cops told me to wait for news!"

Rope didn't see the change in face he wanted to see.

But he didn't say anything more either.

"Well then, trust them, that is, of course, if what you've lost is valuable enough."

Rope stated the reality of the situation with a show of hands.

"What I've lost is really expensive!"

Remo smiled, even bringing a hint of pride to his face.

"Well then... it seems you have a point... the weather in Kanto is pretty weird."

Rope's eyes had shifted to the door.

Remo and Whitley's eyes shifted along with it.

"It does seem rather strange that it's stopped." Remo said as he watched the rain outside the door get lighter and lighter with a trend visible to the naked eye.

After a few more moments, the rain stopped completely.

Rope walked out of the house with Whitley and Remo.

Rope smiled and said goodbye to Remo, "I'll see you around, Mr. Remo."

"With the level of destiny we have, trust me, we'll see each other again someday!"

Remo said still flirtatiously.

After saying that, he turned around and left with great alacrity.

Rope looked at Remo's back as he left, and the smile on his face gradually tightened, and as Remo completely disappeared from sight, the smile on Rope's face all tightened as well.

It even turned gloomy.

"Rotom, call Koga and tell him to be careful, that Tornadus bastard seems to be coming after him."

Rope's face was heavy, and Rotom saluted with a serious face to show that he received it, not daring to come up with any other tricks.

"Rope, that man just now is..."

Whitley didn't know that Tornadus appeared in Johto area, and didn't know that this Tornadus was Mr. Flying of Servants of God organization.

"It could be a high ranking member of Servants of God, I can't be completely sure, but it's better to believe it than not. It's always good to have Koga be careful."

Rope shook his head and said.

It was true that he did not expect the other party to actually come to his door. As for whether or not it was to retaliate, Rope wasn't sure.

As for why Rope could be certain that Remo was Flying...

The poison and even the poison energy utilized by the poisonous Pokémon bred by Koga were all very distinctive.

And just now Rope sensed a trace of residual poisonous energy from the Pokéball on Remo's body.

Outsiders, who had been to the Johto region, and had the smell of Koga's poison on them.

How else could Rope doubt her judgment.

Plus, this sort of thing was supposed to be something that was better to be believed than not believed at all.

Whitley nodded, recognizing Rope's words, then she added, "Should we go over to Fuchsia City and stay there, preparing to support Koga?"

Rope stopped this and waved her hand decisively, "That's not necessary, if Koga They can eat Flying's ass in Fuchsia City too. Then they don't need to hang around..."

"So you don't want to catch Flying?" Whitley asked next.

"What's the point of catching him? Ask for information?What Flying knows Ice will know sooner or later. Spooking him now would be bad instead."

Rope shook his head, slowly.

This wasn't some escalation game he was playing where he had to go through one boss after another.

What Rope needed was to find out all the details of the other party and then make a move to stop the enemy.

Spooking the other party so that they would be on guard, or even start checking themselves for internal undercover agents, that would be the most dangerous thing to do.

Not only would it be irresponsible to Rope's plan, it would be irresponsible to Ice and Vision's lives.

"Just have Koga and the others act like they're for real, and don't put themselves through any damage. I'm still not really sure if the other party recognizes me or not."

Rope's face was slightly grave.

It was important to realize that Rai and Denki had met him and knew that he was the one behind the big event. But Ice and Vision said they didn't seem to have heard of their names circulating within the organization.

So are Rai and Denki choosing to hide it, or is it something else?

Rope wasn't sure, but he could only plan according to the fact that he hadn't been exposed to Servants of God. Otherwise it would have been self-mine.

Whitley nodded, since Rope said so, she didn't have to worry that much, after all, Rope was far superior to herself in that regard.

"Don't worry, I'll have Lance go and watch it all together for me. Don't worry too much if something does go wrong. After all, if this guy can really single out Lance River Koga at the same time.Servants of God wouldn't have to be so careful."

Rope's eyes flashed with a sharp edge.