Pokémon: Wings Of Shadow

Spikemuth.

In the dirty corner of the street between the old, abandoned warehouses on both sides, Shiro walked quickly along the walls, wearing a loose brown coat.

The pink graffiti on the wall resembled twisted, malicious faces of demons, spewing out nauseating poison gas.

This street was on the far west side of Spikemuth, and under normal circumstances, no one would pass through it.

It had once been the town's garbage dump. Even though it had been cleaned by Pokémon before, a stench still lingered— a mix of decaying fish and feces that had fermented over time.

Any normal person would likely flee after taking a single breath of the stench and never return.

Shiro covered his face with a damp cloth, soaked in alcohol, which worked well to mask the foul odor.

He decided to leave Spikemuth through this route, then head along Route 9, through the tunnel into Route 7, and toward Hammerlocke.

Shiro planned to find some temporary work in Hammerlocke, while also training his Rookidee along the way.

Before long, he had walked out of the trash filled street. After turning around two fences made of barbed wire, the scene changed to grasslands and dirt roads.

As the fresh scent of grass and earth gradually replaced the foul odor, Shiro let out a quiet sigh of relief.

He had officially left Spikemuth.

Galar was a region where battles were a traditional custom, and there were trainers everywhere looking for battles. The official routes set by the League, known as travel routes, were the most common places for battle enthusiasts to gather.

As long as he entered Route 9 and hid among the many League trainers, he'd be safe from danger.

Thinking this, Shiro still took a cautious look around to check if anyone was following him.

"Rook!"

At that moment, Rookidee hidden in his coat suddenly chirped and tapped his arm, signaling something.

'There's someone nearby!'

Shiro quickly turned around and looked in the direction pointed out by Rookidee.

At the end of the purple black wall, beside the two fences of barbed wire, a black haired girl slowly emerged. She wore a black jacket and a pink skirt, her arms crossed as she stood tall by a tree, staring at Shiro.

It was the gym leader's daughter and the future gym leader's younger sister—Marnie!

'What is she doing here?'

For a moment, Shiro couldn't make sense of it. The only thing connecting him to Marnie was Rookidee, who had gotten its wing injured due to "training."

But now, it had been less than half an hour since the murder. In such a short time, it would be impossible for someone to discover what happened, report it to the gym leader, and then send Marnie out to track him down.

'No, the gym leader would never send Marnie out! This must be her own action, what is she trying to do?'

"Ki!"

Just as Shiro was deep in thought, Rookidee, hidden in his coat, nudged him with its head in one direction. It was clear that Rookidee wasn't trying to draw his attention to Marnie.

Looking back, Shiro spotted a familiar, chubby figure standing in the bushes beside the dirt road. Rabby, leaning against a small tree, casually watched Shiro.

'Rabby has come to find me personally? Is he here to kill me? But why is Marnie also here?'

Caught between the two of them, Shiro suddenly felt a little unsure of what to do.

As a member of Team Yell, Rabby would at least be using Pokémon at the Intermediate level, easily able to crush Shiro and his Rookidee, who was only at the Novice level.

And Marnie, being the gym leader's daughter, if she was here for some unknown reason to harm him, there was nothing he could do to fight back.

"Yo! Isn't this Shiro." Rabby, holding his big belly, walked toward him from the tree, waving his hand in greeting and asking, "What are you doing outside of Spikemuth? I just finished a mission and ran into you."

Rabby laughed, swaggering up to Shiro and stopping right in front of him. With a questioning glance at Marnie, he called out.

"Miss! This is my nephew. What do you need him for? He always listens well!"

Shiro's mind quickly raced, realizing that Rabby and Marnie weren't working together.

This meant he was temporarily out of danger since Rabby wouldn't try to kill him in front of Marnie. Now, he needed to figure out what Marniei wanted.

Seeing the situation, Marnie, who had been watching from a distance, slowly walked over.

She frowned and scrutinized Shiro from head to toe before asking.

"Is Rookidee with you?"

Shiro froze for a moment, suddenly understanding. He quickly nodded.

"That Rookidee..." Marnie spoke softly, furrowing her brow as she glanced at Rabby, seemingly hesitant.

As the daughter of the Spikemuth Gym Leader, Marnie had been trained in his way, which involved using wild Pokémon for battle experience, often through harsh methods.

This meant that captured wild Pokémon, like Rookidee, would often be injured. Although Marnie had prepared herself mentally for this, she couldn't help but feel some sympathy.

When she saw Rabby carrying three injured Pokémon, she followed him to this spot.

Marnie could sense the strange tension between Rabby and Shiro but wasn't sure about the nature of their relationship. To avoid further confusion, she simply told him.

"Make sure Rookidee's injuries heal properly."

Shiro nodded quickly in agreement.

"Don't worry! Rookidee and I have a strong bond..."

"Then take this." Marnie reached into her pocket and pulled out several light blue candies, handing them to Shiro. "Feed these to Rookidee."

Shiro blinked for a moment, unsure what the candies were. After staring at them, he realized they were the rare candies from the game.

'In the game, these candies could be used to boost a Pokémon's experience points, but what use did they have in the real world? Did they promote Pokémon's growth?'

Shiro made a random guess, smiling as he accepted the candies.

"Thank you, Miss Marnie! Rookidee will be happy with these."

Marnie nodded, still frowning as she rubbed her nose lightly.

"Train it well." she said. "I'll come check on it from time to time, don't think you can slack off." She hadn't realized yet that Shiro was planning to leave Spikemuth as soon as possible.

Rabby's eyes widened as he shoved his fat body between them, raising his voice in a loud shout.

"Hahaha, that's right! Shiro… you're planning to head into the wild, right? Let me take you to catch a Pokémon!"

For Rabby, the unexpected appearance of Marnie completely threw off his plans.

'Was that Rookidee really so special to her? She actually followed it all the way here?' Rabby wondered.

If it weren't for Shiro killing someone and running, with Marnie's protection, Rabby would have had no chance against him.

But now, they were outside Spikemuth, and anything could happen. All he needed to do was disappear with Shiro in front of Marnie, and after that, if someone died, he could explain it however he liked.

Marnie, hearing Rabby's words, fixed her gaze on Shiro.

Shiro lowered his head slightly and said.

"Thank you, Miss Marnie. I'm going to go catch a Pokémon with my uncle."

"Hm?" Marnie hummed lightly, furrowing her brows before giving a slight nod. She wasn't concerned about what they were up to, she just wanted to know where Rookidee was now.

Marnie had already confirmed the whereabouts of the other two injured Pokémon and handed them over to two other young men. But what Marnie didn't know was that those two young men, along with Shiro, had lost their parents on the same mission.

Hearing Shiro's response, Rabby was a bit surprised and met Shiro's innocent face with a confused look.

He thought Shiro would make an excuse for Marnie to chase him off, so he could take advantage of the distance and time to escape.

"Uncle Rabby, should we go?"

Shiro patted Rabby's back, looking as though he genuinely intended to leave with him.

"Sure, sure…"

Rabby couldn't help but laugh.

'This boy is still calling me uncle even now. That's good, I wouldn't need to waste energy chasing him. Once we got to a deserted area, it would be easy…'

"Huh?"

Halfway through the thought, Rabby felt a sharp pain in his lower back. In shock, he turned his head to look at Shiro, whose eyes were now cold and menacing.

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