Chapter 37: The Taste of Freedom

"I'm Ares, Senior Mobile Intelligence Officer, and your direct superior for the next two years."

After the three of them entered a private meeting room, the previously silent Ares finally spoke.

Haruki and Maldo immediately stood upright and listened attentively.

This was going to be their boss; they could only hope he wasn't difficult to deal with.

"Mobile Intelligence Officers assigned as Trainers all have the same mission: to participate in the regional League tournaments, with the goal of ranking as highly as possible.

Your final mission rewards will depend on your tournament results. If you fail to enter even a single League tournament within two years, your Trainer slot will be revoked, and your assignments will be restructured by the organization.

Outside of that, Trainer-class MIO only receive temporary emergency dispatches. All other tasks are voluntary and based on your personal discretion.

For the next two years, you just need to regularly report your mission progress to me. I won't ask anything else of you.

That's all. Dismissed."

And with that, Ares really just left… no additional instructions, not even a single follow-up sentence!

Haruki stood frozen in place, still slightly dazed.

He had known Mobile Intelligence Officers had a lot of freedom, but he hadn't expected it to be this much.

As for those so-called temporary emergency dispatches, they were almost never triggered unless you were extremely unlucky and happened to stumble into something like a full-scale Team Rocket siege.

Otherwise, it was practically impossible.

And the rest of the time… Haruki could live just like a normal Trainer.

Travel, capture, compete in tournaments…

Wasn't this the very thing he had always hoped for?

"Bro, let's introduce ourselves properly, name's Maldo!"

Haruki snapped out of it and looked over at Maldo.

"Haruki. Nice to meet you."

"Good to meet you! That Marowak of yours is seriously strong. We're teammates now, so let's swap contact info and look out for each other."

Haruki nodded without hesitation.

The two chatted for a bit longer before going their separate ways.

From now on, they were free to leave the base and begin their jour- mission.

Outside the F Zone, Haruki met back up with Zirc, who had been waiting for him.

Zirc hurried over, eyes full of admiration.

Second place!

Trainer Group!

He had originally thought it would be great if Haruki could just secure one of the Mobile Intelligence Officer slots.

But now, Haruki had landed directly in the Trainer group; this was next-level stuff.

"Let's go. We'll talk back in the room."

Haruki pulled the hesitating Zirc along. Neither of them paid attention to the curious stares around them and headed straight back to the rest room.

"Boss, you're amazing!"

"Hold off on the excitement. I'm heading out soon to start my mission. Before that, help me collect information on the current MIO'. The more, the better."

"Yeah, got it, Boss!"

"Also… Wesley and Zachary were both eliminated. According to the organization's policy of minimizing internal friction, they'll be disbanded and reassigned to other regions. No one will bother you again."

"…Thank you, Boss…"

Zirc had been dragged into this conflict involuntarily, and now Haruki had pulled him out of it. He felt deeply grateful.

"From now on, I'm counting on you to handle things here at Base No.1."

Zirc nodded seriously. After all this, he had been fully marked as one of Haruki's people, he had every reason to do his job well.

---

The next morning, Haruki woke at five; he couldn't wait to get out.

When he arrived at the teleportation point, Kadabra hadn't even started its shift yet.

It wasn't until exactly six o'clock that Kadabra yawned and lazily waved him over.

"Kadab~ Kadab~"

A flash of white light and when Haruki regained his senses, he had returned to the forest outside Pastoria City.

The morning sunlight streamed gently across Haruki's face, causing him to squint.

A cool breeze, tinged with the scent of grass and earth, drifted by.

Haruki took a deep breath.

He could feel the taste of freedom.

Then, after orienting himself, he headed west, without returning to Pastoria City.

---

Pastoria City was located in the southeastern central part of the Sinnoh region.

Heading west from there, one could pass through the southern range of Mount Coronet and arrive at Oreburgh City.

The journey was long, but Haruki no longer felt the same urgency as before. He could afford to take it slow.

Most people traveling from Pastoria City to Oreburgh City would use Hearthome City as a transit hub. But someone like Haruki, cutting directly between the two cities, was extremely rare.

And that was exactly his plan.

Avoid crowded areas, focus on battling wild Pokémon, and give Beldum as much combat experience as possible to help it grow.

Once he was far enough from Pastoria City, Haruki released both Beldum and Skiploom as well.

"Bel~"

Beldum was full of energy. Its shiny dome was itching for action, and it was itching to charge something.

Three identical Skiploom floated happily around Haruki.

They looked carefree, but even while traveling, Skiploom was actively practicing its Substitute technique.

Although Skiploom hadn't gotten a chance to appear during the selection, that was only because the division's IT Officers were too weak, Haruki had taken first place in the opening round.

So he only needed to fight once.

Though, truthfully, the real reason he hadn't held back in the first round was Matori…

An Elite-tier crashing a pool full of Veteran-tiers… anyone with sense would steer clear.

That said, even if there hadn't been a tournament, Haruki would still have developed the Toxic-Protect-Substitute strategy for Skiploom.

No other reason.

It was just that well-suited!

"Maro~"

Just then, Marowak suddenly stepped in front of Haruki, eyes wary as it stared toward a thicket ahead.

"Wild Pokémon?"

Haruki stopped at once and called Beldum and Skiploom back to him.

Rustle~ rustle...

One human and three Pokémon quietly prepared for battle, waiting for the enemy to appear.

The next moment-

Pop~

A tiny head poked out, looking around in a dazed and adorable manner.

Haruki blinked. This scene felt strangely familiar.

Then his eyes widened in shock!

"Goomy? How could a pseudo-legendary hatchling from Kalos be here?!"

Haruki was still processing his surprise when a flash of silver zipped past him

…Beldum had already slammed into it.

It was Beldum's first time seeing a Goomy. Of course it had to test its strength.

But Goomy... didn't take kindly to hard hits.

Beldum had used Iron Head, smashing straight into Goomy so hard that it sunk deep into the creature's gelatinous body.

The next second, Goomy tensed up and bounced the stunned Beldum back with ease.

"GOOOMM!"

Goomy was furious. It demanded to know why Beldum had rammed into it, and so forcefully at that!

But thanks to its soft, squishy body, blunt impacts like that didn't do much damage.

Beldum, unconvinced, wanted to go again but Haruki stopped it.

"Something's off. Fall back!"

As he spoke, Haruki glanced around, then quickly retreated to a large tree, scanning his surroundings warily.

"Bel~"

Beldum, obedient for once, called out softly and floated back with some reluctance; it still wanted to fight.

"Skip~"

Skiploom seemed to sense something ahead of time. It proactively used Aromatherapy on Haruki and the others.

A fresh floral scent spread outward, instantly clearing Haruki's mind.

But when he looked around again, the surroundings had completely changed.