Unsurprisingly, Poliwag's Water Gun missed its mark.
Faced with Poliwag's limp little water stream, Wingull only flapped its wings and let out an even louder mocking cry: "Wuo-oh, wuo-oh, wuo-oh…"
It hadn't even come here with bad intentions—just wanted to check whether the man-and-monster duo from yesterday was still around.
As it flew near and spotted the campfire, it realized—yep, it was them.
When it first arrived, Wingull didn't even make a sound. It had stayed quiet until it saw Poliwag burn its lips from eating too fast… then it just couldn't hold back the laughter.
As for the Water Gun that came afterward? Wingull didn't even bother dodging. It didn't need to.
"Yoyo, yoyo!" Poliwag, seeing its attack miss, was of course furious. It got up and charged toward Wingull.
But Wingull, watching the little tadpole rush over, simply spread its white wings and took off into the air. In its mind: This little guy still doesn't get it—I can fly, you know.
The result was obvious. Poliwag caught nothing and returned to the shelter with its head down, muttering grievances to Reiji, "Yoyo… yoyo…"
"It's okay. Don't worry. Once you evolve, you'll be able to hit it. Trust me," Reiji gently patted Poliwag's head to soothe it, offering comfort with his words.
Truth be told, he was holding back laughter. If anything, he wanted to give Wingull a thumbs-up.
Thanks to Wingull being the perfect villain, he could now spark Poliwag's fighting spirit. Otherwise, transitioning from carefree days to grueling training might've been too tough on the little guy.
As long as Wingull was around, whenever Poliwag slacked off, wanted to play, or struggled to keep going—
He could bring Wingull into the picture to stir up some rage and rekindle that fighting spirit. It was the perfect motivational tool.
"Yoyo, yoyo…" After Reiji's encouragement, Poliwag felt much better. As long as Reiji was there, it could bounce back from anything, no matter how frustrating.
Once Poliwag calmed down, Reiji started feeding it—turning its frustration into appetite. "Eat up," he said.
To eat freshly cooked seaweed and shellfish, Poliwag ended up using Refresh several times that night to heal its scorched lips. Even the bruised tail from catching Carvanha was healed with Refresh.
Meanwhile, while Poliwag wasn't looking, Reiji tossed some boiled shellfish toward Wingull and began his own meal.
He couldn't wait any longer—he was starving. He took a big gulp of seafood soup to warm up, then started on the seaweed, clams, and roe.
As a human, he filled up quickly. But Poliwag was just getting started.
From there, his job was to keep feeding Poliwag while secretly throwing more shellfish to Wingull.
Eventually, he took the crispy roasted Magikarp bones off the fire. To make them easier for Poliwag to digest, he crushed the bones and meat into small bits before feeding them to the tadpole.
"Easy there. Don't rush," Reiji said, worried Poliwag might overeat from its eagerness.
Of course, he didn't actually stop it. Poliwag was still growing—eating more was part of that.
They were surviving on a deserted island with limited food. As long as it was edible, they'd eat it—including fish bones.
Those were tough for a human to digest, but not for a Pokémon. Their digestive systems were far superior.
If Poliwag didn't want to eat them, he wouldn't force it… but then it'd just go back to eating greens.
Once Poliwag was nearly done, it downed the last of the seafood soup. Half the Magikarp skeleton was still left. Reiji crushed it too—for storage.
The rest would be tomorrow's breakfast for Poliwag. It would need energy for training.
That Magikarp was huge—just half of its bones, once roasted dry, still weighed about three kilos, at least by Reiji's estimate.
To keep Wingull from stealing it, he packed the crushed bones into a plastic bottle and buried it beneath the sand where they slept.
With everything set, Reiji added more firewood to the campfire, making sure it would burn until morning, and prepared to sleep.
"Poliwag, I'm going to bed. If you're not sleepy, keep watch for a while," Reiji said, leaning back against the familiar boulder and gazing at the starry night sky, yawning widely.
It was his fifth night on the island. The chaos of survival had distracted him from missing his old world.
Not that he could go back anyway—no point thinking about it.
"Forget it. Sleep first," he muttered, shaking off the thoughts. Honestly, this world wasn't so bad.
Here, he could crush the competition just by having Earth knowledge. Sure, it wouldn't work on the super-rich or powerful, but for the average person?
His once-useless knowledge of Pokémon might actually shine here—if he could survive long enough to use it…
People get weird when they have too much time to think.
So he stopped thinking, pulled the insulating foam sheet away from the fire, rested his hand on Poliwag's body, and quickly drifted off to sleep.
After Reiji was asleep, Poliwag quietly wriggled out from under his hand and glared at Wingull in the distance.
"Yoyo, yoyo!" It left the shelter to avoid disturbing Reiji, then began cursing out Wingull from afar.
Wingull didn't seem to mind at all. It leisurely preened its wings with its beak.
Though it was confused about one thing—why had that human tossed food toward it? What was he thinking?
Wingull hadn't eaten the food, of course. As a bird, it had instincts. You didn't eat food from strangers without knowing if it was safe.
But it had secretly hidden one shellfish under its claw, planning to bring it back to its nest and taste it there.
Whatever the human's intent, it would be safe in its own nest. No way that guy could find it.
After finishing its grooming, Wingull heard Poliwag still yelling insults, but didn't care. It simply opened its beak and called out: "Wuo-oh, wuo-oh, wuo-oh…"
Flapping its wings, Wingull soared away from the beach with its cooked shellfish.
What it didn't know was… its cries hurt Poliwag more than all the insults.
Poliwag broke down again.
In the end, whoever gets serious loses. Poliwag still had a lot of growing up to do.
When Wingull finally disappeared from view, Poliwag returned to the shelter in a huff and collapsed beside Reiji's feet. Its heavy eyelids drooped under the weight of sleep.
Its eyes slowly closed, and Poliwag drifted off… fast asleep.
(End of Chapter)
[+50 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]