Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Terrible Little Card

Heath glanced up. A red-haired woman had just stepped out of a house on the left side of the road, its main color scheme likewise ice blue. Dressed in professional attire, she greeted the people nearby with a warm smile, looking nothing like one of the Elite Four.

“Elite Four member Lorelei?”

Heath stared at the woman before him in astonishment. He had never expected to see one of the Elite Four so soon after entering the Indigo League. No wonder this city was so safe.

You could walk out your door and run into an Elite Four member. That was not merely a sense of security; it was like living right beside a military base. The feeling of safety was overwhelming.

What was more, Heath knew that Lorelei was not the only Elite Four member stationed in the city. A single city could have as many as six Elite Four members and one Champion. What kind of city was this? It was quite simply the safest city in the entire League, without question.

Aside from Karen and Will, the other two members of the Johto Elite Four were currently being filled by Bruno and Agatha of the Kanto League. Koga had yet to become one of the Elite Four, while the Champion was generally assumed to be Lance, the Dragon-type Elite Four member.

Lance had not wanted to become Champion at first. As a result, neither the Kanto nor the Johto region had an official Champion for some time, and Heath could no longer remember exactly when the position had finally been established.

Although seeing Lorelei had excited him somewhat, Heath had no intention of disturbing her. He merely glanced over, then drove his food truck toward the market. After buying ingredients, he still had to visit a supermarket for daily necessities and furniture. Finally, he would need to go to the Public Security Bureau and apply for a stall location.

Even setting up a stall required an application. Once approved, a vendor could only operate in a fixed location. Applying for a mobile stall was far more troublesome, and the fees were higher as well. Those were not the real problems, however. The greatest difficulty was that mobile-stall permits were extremely hard to obtain. Not everyone could get one.

“Trainer! Is this what a big city looks like?”

Zorua suddenly leaped onto Heath’s head, gazing around with bright curiosity.

“Yes. This is the largest city in the Kanto League.” Heath nodded. Compared with this enormous metropolis, the other cities were practically children by comparison. He had also discovered that the city was divided into numerous districts.

For example, the area where Heath now stood was the Ice District. It had been given that name because Lorelei, one of the Elite Four, lived there. She was an Ice-type specialist, and ice blue happened to be her favorite color.

That left Heath marveling at the League’s power. Every member of the Elite Four could decide the name and primary color scheme of the district where they lived. Of course, they could also choose not to decide those things themselves.

Lance’s district was a perfect example. It was, in a word, unique. Heath could only use that one word to describe it, because the place was so unusual that he did not even know how else to characterize it.

According to the information he had looked up on his phone, Lance had no particular requirements regarding the dominant colors in his district. The buildings there could therefore be painted whatever colors their owners preferred.

The problem, however, was the name Lance had chosen for the district.

Heath could only say that it was unmistakably Lance’s style. In the future, Lance would probably formally assume the position of Champion of the Johto region, at which point his residence might be moved to Champion Avenue in the center of the city.

Champion Avenue was also the best way to distinguish the Johto League from the Kanto League. In fact, it was practically the only landmark separating the two. The Johto League lay to the left of Champion Avenue, while the Kanto League lay to the right. Those who lived along Champion Avenue were generally people who served as Elite Four members for both regions.

“Trainer,” Zorua asked excitedly, “do you think a huge city like this might have a red-light district?”

Heath gave Zorua a sidelong glance. How could this little creature’s mind be filled with nothing but filthy thoughts? What did it mean, asking about a red-light district?

“Can’t you think of something wholesome for once? Like the supermarkets or the market?”

Heath sighed helplessly. Zorua was beyond saving. The next time he saw Lugia, Heath thought, he ought to ask whether the Legendary Pokémon could somehow empty that fox’s dirty-minded head. Ideally, he would wipe it clean and reinstall the whole thing.

“Who says I’m wrong? Don’t all cities have places like that?”

Zorua sounded deeply indignant. Heath rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Please. This is the safest city in the entire League. What criminal would be bored enough to try anything illegal here?”

Heath glared at Zorua, then tapped the little Pokémon on the head.

Zorua huffed angrily, snatched a card from the ground, and carried it over to Heath.

Heath took one look and widened his eyes in surprise. Why was there a card like this on his food truck? He could not understand it at all. As far as he knew, cards of this sort belonged in hotel or motel rooms—and even then, they were usually scams.

This one followed the same formula: a beautiful woman whose picture made one dizzy, some suggestive words printed across the card, and contact information.

“You don’t actually believe this is real, do you?” Heath explained helplessly. “Sister Feng told me before that if you contact people through cards like this, they’ll ask you to pay the travel expenses first. Once you do, they’ll keep inventing new ways to cheat you out of your money. In the end, you won’t even see a single hair of the person—or they’ll simply lure you into a honey trap and rob you.”

Heath felt that the card was mocking him. Only moments ago, he had declared this city the safest place in the entire League. Yet somehow, he had still encountered one of these little cards.

“What about these?”

Zorua brought over two more cards. Heath glanced at them and sucked in a sharp breath.

One showed a heavily muscled man, with a particularly suggestive slogan printed beside him. The other featured several Pokémon that looked deceptively cute, along with similar advertisements and all manner of suggestive implications. Heath had been caught completely off guard.

Only then did he realize that in the Pokémon world, humans were not the only ones targeted by such temptations. These people had even set their sights on Pokémon.

What was this supposed to be—the Pokémon world’s exclusive line of promotional cards?

Heath felt that the world was beyond saving. Suddenly, he understood why the city had both a Public Security Bureau and Pokémon officers.