Heheheh!... I did it!... Heheheh!... I did it!... Heheheh! Hehehehah! HEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I FINALLY FINISHED A NEW CHAPTERAHAHAHAHAHAHA-

Ahem!

So... Here you go!... The long overdue second chapter of Of Pikachu and Huntsmen! My sincerest apologies for my writer-block-induced hiatus, and I hope you will enjoy this new chapter, and as always, don't forget to leave your reviews!

Also, check out my new Twitter account TheSoldierOfFortune ( TSOFortune)! Feel free to also share your thoughts and ask any questions over there!


Our First Meeting

March 27, 2004; 12:04 SAST (Sunrise Archipelago Standard Time; UTC+00:00)

Outskirts of Pallet Town, Kanto

Pichu had been wandering among the trees for five minutes, searching for his siblings. As a baby Pokémon, he didn't have many worries aside from trying to find his relatives and nestmates during their daily game of hide-and-seek.

Little did our furry friend know that that would be the day he would become a player in an even bigger game. And it all started when the Tiny Mouse Pokémon heard a loud boom and caught a bright flash in the corner of his eye. 'Huh?' The Tiny Mouse Pokémon stared in the direction of the bright flash, 'What was that?' Led by the curiosity typical of a little kid, the yellow rodent ran on all fours until he ended up in a small clearing, where he saw four humans lying motionless on the ground. 'Humans? Are they... dead?!...'

The Tiny Mouse Pokémon cautiously approached one of the humans – a girl dressed chiefly in red – and examined her, trying to determine if she was alive. He finally received his answer when the girl suddenly convulsed, causing him to flinch and exclaim, "Chu!"

"Ugh..." The girl groaned as she started to move. "Ngh... What...?" It didn't take long for her to fully get up and sit on her elbows. She looked around until her eyes found Pichu staring back at her with confusion and curiosity, "Pichu...?"

Ruby just sat there for a second, staring in complete silence aside from the rustling of leaves in the wind... then another second passed... then another one... then another one-

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" the reaper suddenly exclaimed upon seeing the cutest animal she had ever seen in her life. It looked like a small rodent, perhaps a mouse, standing about three feet (one meter) tall. It had stubby legs, pale yellow fur, a black tail, ear tips, and collar, and pink circles on its cheeks. "Socutesocutesocutesocute!"

"Ruby...?" the reaper suddenly heard Weiss groaning, "What happened?... How did we—" The heiress then noticed the mouse thing and exclaimed, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Who's da cutest widdle thing in the world? It's you! It's you!"

The little critter giggled, seemingly amused by the girls' behavior.

"Hey, everyone okay?... Why are you squeaking like..." Yang and her partner looked down and saw the mouse "...that?"

"What... is that?" Blake asked.

"I think it's a... mouse... rodent... thing?..."

"This mouse doesn't look like any I've ever seen. It looks... humanoid...-ish..."

"Coochie-coochie-coochie-coo! Coochie-coochie-coo!"

The black cat took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "We have to do something about these two."

"Allow me..." the blondie mischievously snuck behind her sister and the heiress and put her index fingers in her mouth. She then put the most shit-eating grin on her face before drilling each girl in the ear hole with a saliva-soaked finger.

The two girls immediately stopped baby-talking, and their bodies contracted once they felt the gross wetness in their orifices.

"Agh! Yang! Seriously?! A wet willy?!"

"Of all the childish and uncouth acts you have ever committed…!"

Yang, of course, was too amused to care about their teammates' admonishment.

"Anyway, it seems your plan worked, Ruby. We are back outside." Blake noted.

"Yeah, but... where?" Weiss asked, "I don't think this is above the cave. I can't even see any entrance hole in the ground."

"Well, I don't see any Grimm nearby either, so that's something." Yang stated before turning her attention back to their guest once, "And I've certainly never seen something like you before."

"Yeah, what are you, anyway?" Weiss asked the weird little rodent rhetorically.

"It looks like it came straight out of a kids' cartoon!" Yang noted.

"Pichu?"

At that moment, the girls just stared at the little cartoon animal that seemingly uttered a word - not a real word, but nevertheless still a word.

"Did... Did this animal just talk?!" Blake asked.

"Oh good, so I wasn't the only one!" Yang quipped.

"Uh..." Ruby waved her hand awkwardly at the rodent. "Hi... My name is Ruby... What is your name?"

"Pichu?"

"Huh! That's all it keeps saying..." Weiss stated, "And it's not just some onomatopoeic sound, but an actual word... But what does it mean?"

"Could it be its name?" Yang asked.

"Is 'Pichu' your name?" the critter answered the reaper's question with a confused nod, "You understood what I said!... He understood what I said!"

"So this animal understands human language, can make facial expressions, and even articulate one word, even if it is only one. It appears to possess a rudimentary form of human-like intelligence..." the heiress noted, "Although, I am going to go out on a limb and say it is still a juvenile, judging by its looks."

"You're saying he's a convict?" Yang asked with a straight face.

"*sigh* 'Juvenile' as in a kid, a baby, not juvenile detention! Seriously, Yang, sometimes it seems you are an even bigger dunce than your sister, if that was even possible!"

"Hey!" Ruby exclaimed, offended, while her sister rolled her eyes.

"Uh, girls?..." the girls looked in the same direction Blake was looking and saw three other "Pichus" running toward them.

In the meantime, Pichu saw his siblings approaching him, so he ran on all fours toward them to greet them, "Hey, guys!"

"Hey, yourself!" One of his siblings responded, "You do know that in hide-and-seek, when you are 'it', that usually means you are supposed to be searching for us, not the other way around. What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you. But instead, I found them." Pichu #1 pointed behind himself, and all his siblings saw the girls.

"Whoa! Humans!?" Pichu #2 exclaimed.

"Cool!" a third one exclaimed.

"Did you get captured by any of them?" a fourth one asked

Pichu #1 paused for a second as if he was thinking about it before finally giving an answer, "Uh, No..."

"Hey, Pichu!" the Tiny Mouse Pokémon looked to his right and saw the human girl in red next to him, "So, are these, like, your brothers and sisters?"

"No, Ruby! They're his personal valets!" Weiss interjected with ten kilos of salt, "Of course they're his brothers and sisters!"

"You don't have to be mean!..." the reaper murmured with a pout.

"Girls, you know what is going on here, right?" everybody looked at Yang as she proudly stated, "We may have just discovered a new species on Remnant."

"Yeah..." Weiss smirked. "The Beacon R&D Department will want to study it!... Not to mention Atlas!..."

"Whoa, you're not thinking of having the eggheads back home dissect it, are you, Weiss Queen?" Yang grinned mischievously.

"*sigh* Right now, I'm thinking you have watched way too many science-fiction films."

"Girls, I don't want to be the one to ruin this moment, but how about we focus on something more urgent, like... I don't know... finding out where we are and finding a way back to Beacon!?"

Fshshshshsh!

Before someone else could respond, all four Team RWBY members looked in the direction the rustling was coming from, and a couple of moments later, a Beowolf emerged from behind the trees and bushes.

"And here we go!" the black cat sighed.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!" Yang shouted in frustration.

"I knew something was missing from this picture!" Blake sighed as she and her teammates drew their weapons.

Meanwhile, the troop of Pichu was looking scared and confusedly at the lupine monster staring back and growling at them, "Uh... What is that?..."

"Um... Is that a Pokémon?..." Pichu #2 asked.

"Cool! We're gonna see a Trainer vs. Mon fight!" Pichu #3 exclaimed with enthusiasm.

However, Pichu #4 noticed something. "Wait a minute!... Why haven't the girls brought out any Mons by now?"

But before anyone could say anything else, a loud "BANG!" could be heard before the werewolf's head exploded.

"CHU!" the Tiny Mouse Pokémon were startled. They stared in confusion and horror as the decapitated body slumped to the ground and evaporated. Then they looked at the humans and saw the red one holding what looked like a gun pointed toward where the wolf-thing had been just a second before.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"Huh?..." The four baby Pokémon turned around and saw another wolf-Mon emerging from behind the bushes, causing them to tremble in fright and slowly back up with their hands raised, "Um... hello there, mister doggie... We want no trouble..."

However, the wolf-like monster suddenly did something unexpected – it jumped over the Mons, completely ignoring them, and went for the humans!

BANG!

However, the blondie greeted it with a massive uppercut right in its kisser, making it fly back behind the same bushes it had emerged from.

However, they still had no time to rest, as they saw an Ursa appear on the other side of the clearing, followed by a Creep from another part, then by the Beowolf from before, now much more pissed... Several low-tier Grimm appeared from all sides until the Huntresses-in-training were now surrounded.

"Again... YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!" the Pichu became shocked when they saw the blonde catching fire seemingly out of nowhere!

Ruby saw the four "Pichus" still standing there, frightened and confused. "Guys, you gotta get out of here! It is not safe!"

The Pichu looked at each other. "Uh... I say we listen!..." Pichu #1 suggested before it started running, "Come on!" . Not knowing what else to do, the other Pichu followed their sibling behind the bushes outside the clearing. They stared in shock and fear as the humans were duking it out against the totally unknown Mons.

"Holy poo-poo! They... Those humans are fighting... whatever those Mons are by themselves, with no other Mons! That's not how it's supposed to go!"

"And they're killing them! THEY'RE KILLING POKÉMON!"

"Do you think they are poachers? Mom warned us about them! Will they come for us next?!"

While his siblings were talking amongst themselves, they kept trying to make something of what the H-E-double-hockey sticks was going on. Pichu #1 kept watching the fight. While he was just as confused as his siblings, he had this tingling feeling that there was much more to this fight than met the eye. As a matter of fact, he was now doubting that those freaky monsters were Pokémon in the first place. 'Besides, if these humans wanted us dead, they would have just shot us the moment they saw us, right?...'

Ruby was rotating her scythe around, slicing and dicing several Beowolves that ganged up on her before dealing with an Ursa. As the giant ursine raised on its hind legs, roaring defiantly, the reaper leaped and plunged the scythe's blade into its belly. Then, she fired a round and used the recoil of her weapon to swing it upward, slicing the ursine beast almost entirely in half. Afterward, she jumped just in time to dodge a Boarbatusk's charging attack and land behind it.

The reaper was ready to fight the giant pig as it stopped, also prepared to charge again before a sizeable light-blue glyph suddenly appeared under its feet. Several ice spikes raised out of it, impaling the porcine monster. The reaper looked to the left and saw Weiss winking at her before moving on to her next opponent – another Ursa. The heiress parried the big bear's attacks before she propelled herself upward with a black, Gravi-Dust-infused glyph, impaling the beast's head through the chin and out through the top.

Meanwhile, Blake was holding her own against a Creep. As the bipedal reptilian lunged at her to chomp her, it ended up biting a stone replica of her while the real deal was now above it. The Faunus then blinked downward, impaling the monster with her sword. She then used her Semblance again to slide between a Beowolf's legs, which she sliced off as she slid by. Once the black cat got back up, she switched Gambol Shroud to pistol mode and double-tapped the crippled werewolf in the head.

Finally, there was Yang, who kept punching out uglies left and right; BANG! "DON'T?!" BANG! "YOU?!" BANG! "KNOW?!" BANG! "WHEN?!" *BANG!* "TO?!" BANG! "FUCKING?!" the yellow brawler slammed her last fist so hard in a Beowolf's face she made it fly like a cannonball back behind the trees, "QUIT?!" Once she stopped punching, she just stood there heavily winded, "FUCKIN' COCKSUCKERS!"

The girls kept at it for ten minutes, slaying baddies left and right before they managed to exterminate the entire pack.

Once Pichu #1 realized there would be no more violence and death, he slowly walked toward the humans, "Wait, where are you going? You don't know what the humans will do to you!" the Tiny Mouse Pokémon ignored the pleas of his siblings and re-entered the clearing.

"Okay, never thought I would say this, but I really hope there are no more assholes to kick!" Yang quipped.

Ruby looked to her left and saw one of the "Pichus" reluctantly walk toward her. She approached the little rodent and knelt beside him, "Hey, little guy!... I hope we didn't scare you... too hard... Are you and your siblings okay?"

After a brief pause of hesitation, Pichu nodded, "P... Pichu..." 'Okay!... So far, so good!... So far...'

"That's good to hear!" The reaper patted the rodent on the head before getting back up. "Okay, guys, you can all come out now!" However, she noticed nobody else was coming out; they were peeking from behind a bush.

Pichu #1 looked at his siblings and sighed, 'Okay, you know what, I say these humans are worth a shot! Pun totally intended!' "It's okay, guys!... Come out! It's perfectly safe!" The others came out of their hiding place, yet this time they were not alone; a Pikachu had joined them, one of the adults from his nest, 'Uh-oh...'

Team RWBY was surprised at the sudden appearance of another yellow rodent, albeit one that looked very different from the "Pichus". This one was a few inches bigger, chubbier, with longer and thinner ears, and had a larger, yellow tail resembling a lightning bolt. It took a defensive position and stared at the girls cautiously. And it soon turned out it was not alone. It was quickly joined by three more like her.

"More weird... yellow... rodent-thing... things?!" Yang tried her best to formulate her sentence correctly.

"Yeah... Something tells me the parents are back..." Blake deduced, "And they don't seem too happy that their kids are talking to a bunch of strangers."

The girls exchanged glances, wondering what to do as the presumed "adult Pichus" maintained a stance that suggested they were ready to lunge at them if necessary. Ruby made the decision to at least try to diffuse the situation. "Okay, uh... sirs... ma'ams... parents?... Anyway, we're not trying to harm your children! We've just happened to run into each other! You see, my friends and I, like, fell asleep and woke up in this forest, and the first thing we saw was these 'Pichus,' and then we had to fight several baddies, and now we are lost and-and-and-" the red reaper stopped her "motor-mouthing" once she noticed the "adult Pichus" were giving her confused looks as if they were staring at a crazy person spewing nonsense, "Yeah..."

"*deadpan* Very convincing, Ruby!" Blake "congratulated" the reaper.

"Wait!" the Pikachu heard Pichu #1 yelling, "C-calm down! These girls mean no harm! They're friendly!"

"Friendly!?" the Tiny Mouse heard one of his brothers yelling, "Dude, they've got guns, and they-they-they killed Pokémon!" The Tiny Mouse Pokémon could see his siblings all looked rather panicky, which was understandable. Heck, he was surprised how he wasn't freaking out right now.

"What!?" one of the Pikachu cried.

"Yeah, there were some scary Mons coming from everywhere... and-and-and the girls fought them and just... m-murdered them all!"

"Is this true?!" another Pikachu asked.

"What?! No! I mean, yes! I mean... Pichu #1 sighed before continuing, What he says is true, but they're not poachers! Come on, guys, think about it! If they wanted to kill us, they would have done so already!"

"That is still no excuse for running off like that. Besides, do you remember what I have told you and your siblings about befriending every random person or Mon you come across?"

"Yet, he does have a point. What's stopping those humans from opening fire on us right now?... Aside from us, of course..." another Pikachu wondered.

"Wait a minute!..." the first Pikachu looked around herself as she had noticed something, "If they killed Pokémon, then where are the bodies?"

"They all evaporated."

"Evaporated?!"

"Yeah, they fell and just... poof!... they disappeared..." one of the other Pichu explained.

"'Disappeared'!? Just like that?!"

The adults then started discussing among themselves. "Maybe they were Ghost-types?"

"But if that was the case, bullets would have been useless against them... Maybe they didn't die and just played dead to escape or as a prank. Ghost-types sure do love those!"

"This still does not make me feel at ease with those humans carrying weapons."

"Well, at least the kids are all alive and well." he then turned toward the Pichu, "Come on, children! Let's go home! We have found food, and the others are waiting for us!"

And so, the four Pikachu turned around and walked away, followed by their children, but not without taking a few more cautious glances at Team RWBY along the way. And she was not the only one; Pichu #1 also took one last look at the girls.


"Whoa! Humans!?"

"Cool!"

"Did you get captured by any of them?"

"Uh, no..."


Pichu liked the idea of becoming a Trainer's Pokémon. He had seen plenty of Trainers pass through the forest and had heard stories about what it meant to fight alongside one. Every battle a Pokémon fought was considered a test of might. If said Pokémon ended up caught by the Trainer, it was considered proof that said Trainer was a better fighter. The Mon was given an opportunity to improve itself even further. Thus, some would say it was an honor to be captured by a Trainer...

"Hey!" Pichu was interrupted from his thoughts by the voice of his sister, "What are you doing, dizzy? Aren't you coming?"

"Oh, uh... Yeah, uh... Coming now!", the Tiny Mouse Pokémon then ran to his family.

"Okay, they're gone..." Blake stated, "Which means that now there's just us... Alone... In the middle of the forest..."

"Yeah, alone..." Ruby stopped as she put her hand in her pocket and took something out of there, "With our Scrolls!" the reaper opened her device, and her smile quickly vanished from her face once she took a look at the screen, "What do you mean 'No signal'!?"

The rest of Team RWBY looked at their leader as if she had grown a second head.

"What!?" Weiss erupted in surprise and checked her own Scroll, "I also have a 'No signal'! What about you two?"

Blake and Yang shook their heads, with an added "Nope!" from the latter.

"But how is that possible?!" the heiress was baffled. How could the girls not get any reception from a telecom system designed to cover pretty much the entirety of the inhabited world?

"So, any plan, Ruby?" Blake asked the team's leader.

"Well..." Ruby looked around for a few seconds before finally noticing something that gave her an idea, "Here! Look at the ground!" the reaper pointed to her right and downward.

The others looked in that direction in confusion, and Blake was the first to react, "A slope!... We're on a hill!"

"Exactly!..." the team leader continued rather insecurely, "I've been thinking... how about we just go down this hill and see where it takes us?... I mean, the descent must, like, stop somewhere!"

"Hmm... And since we are descending it, it means we will know the direction we will have to take at all times, thus minimizing the risk of us running around in circles!" Weiss realized.

"And that's not all! Are you hearing this?" Blake asked.

The others looked around, listening to their surroundings. "Hear what? I ain't hearing anything." Yang questioned.

After the Faunus-in-disguise mentally scolded herself for forgetting that her human teammates didn't have the gift of acute senses, she responded: "Cars! I can hear them down there!"

The Huntresses walked towards the edge of the hill and stood still. "Yeah... I... I'm hearing a very faint 'woosh' sound..." Weiss confirmed. While they lacked Blake's cat-like senses, their Auras enhanced their own somewhat.

"Alright, we've got a place to go to! Congrats to you all! Now let's go!" Yang exclaimed.

"Then, in that case, Team RWBY, roll out!" Ruby finished, relieved that her teammates agreed to the idea before they set off into the woods.

For the next couple of minutes, they descended the steep hill, the unmistakable sound of cars "vrooming" and "zooming" through the area growing louder with each step until they finally reached the bottom, where they emerged from the woods and on the side of a road.

The girls were relieved at the sight of an artificial construction. The road looked like a two-lane highway, with the dense forest on their side and a guardrail on the other. Further beyond the railing was a drop in altitude into a valley filled with even more tall trees, followed by more hills on the other side.

"Hell yeah! We did it! And all thanks to your idea, Rubes! And it took much less than I thought." the reaper blushed at her sister's praise.

"If we could hear cars from up there, through all this thick foliage, then it was pretty obvious that the hill wasn't that high." Weiss pointed out.

Ruby surveyed the road and declared, "Well, now that we're all here, let's find some help."

However, Yang pointed out, "Wait a second - why are all the cars going in the wrong direction?"

The others looked and saw that, indeed, all vehicles were driving on the left-hand side of the road in both directions. "Huh! That's a new one!" Blake responded drily.

"But there is no place on Remnant that I know of where they do this..." Weiss declared, "Just where are we?"

Shshsh!

Team RWBY jumped in surprise when they heard the shrubbery rustle behind them. They all turned around immediately, weapons at the ready.

"Who's there?... You better show yourself, asshole, before-" Yang stopped mid-sentence when she saw something coming out of the bushes...

"Pichu!?" Ruby exclaimed when she recognized the little yellow rodent from earlier, "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be with your family!... Wait, are you one of the same 'Pichu' from before?"

"Pichu!..." the Tiny Mouse Pokemon chuckled awkwardly.

"I'm gonna take that as a 'yes.' So, again, what are you doing here?"

The rodent blushed bright red and hid his hands behind his back, looking embarrassed, as if he was afraid of being laughed at.

"You want to come with us?" Pichu nodded in agreement. Ruby stared at the little yellow rodent and pondered for a second, "Awww! How could anyone refuse such a cude widdle thing like you?". The reaper didn't even pay attention to her teammates face-faulting at that answer.

Once they all "recovered," Weiss intervened, "Uh, Ruby? Shouldn't you think through this a little?"

"Aw, come on, Weiss! What could this little guy possibly do to us?"

"It's not that! It's the fact that you plan to take a wild animal and raise it as a pet!"

"And? Yang and I have a dog back home! One we've been raising since he was a puppy!"

"A rodent is not a dog, genius! You don't even know what species it belongs to. Do you know its needs? What does it eat? When it sleeps? And what about its family?"

"Well, let's ask it!" the reaper returned to the little rodent, "So, do your parents know you are here?"

"Chu!" Pichu nodded.

"And did they let you come here?"

"Pichu!"

"Wait, what!?" Weiss exclaimed in surprise, "You tell me your parents allow you to just leave on your own with strangers?" the rodent nodded again as if it was supposed to be something normal.

Blake sighed before coming up with an argument of her own, "All right, let's say that problem is fixed. But what about the law? You know, the one that strictly prohibits anyone from taking animals from their natural environment without permission!"

"Well... We'll tell the cops that we've found it all alone and scared in the woods and ask them if we can keep it. Come on, guys, I've always wanted my own animal sidekick!"

At that moment, Weiss tried to avoid letting her partner's stubbornness get on her nerves, "Yang? Would you mind saying something?"

"Eh, I don't know... It would be cool to bring it back to Beacon and show it to the others. Maybe the guys at the lab will know what animal this is."

"*sigh* Why did I even bother asking you?"

"Aw, c'mon, I trust Ruby to take good care of the little guy. Besides, look at them!"

Weiss turned around and saw Ruby holding Pichu up, each sporting big puppy-dog eyes. The heiress suddenly felt her resolve crumbling away. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't avert her gaze from the duo's eyes, and they kept it up until- "Darn it!"

Blake massaged the bridge of her nose, "Okay, now that we've assisted to this embarrassment, how about we go back to what we were doing, namely getting a motorist to stop and help us?"

"Oh, right, right!" Ruby put Pichu back down and positioned herself by the side of the road with her arm stretched out and her thumb pointing behind her, flagging down the next passing vehicle - a silver-grey sedan.

The car pulled over right next to Ruby, and the window came down on what was supposed to be the driver's side, but when the reaper looked through, she saw the driver was sitting on the right side of the car.

Said driver was a girl in her late teens/early twenties, with long brunette hair and wearing a green dress, "Konnichi-wa! ("Hello, there!") How may I help you?".

Ruby started talking, her voice quivering as she asked, "Sorry to bother you, but we are a little lost, so could you help us, please?"

"Yes, of course! Put any luggage you have in the trunk, then hop in."

Ruby, Weiss and Blake quickly opened the trunk and put their weapons inside before Ruby went to Pichu and lifted him in her arms.

"Shotgun!" Yang said as she opened the front passenger's door.

"What, no! Yang, that's not fair! I wasn't ready!" Ruby cried while the others closed the trunk.

"Sink or swim, Ruby. Sink or swim." the brawler smirked as she entered the car, having decided to keep her shotgun gauntlets on herself.

Once everybody was inside, the driver switched to first gear, and the vehicle was soon back on the road.

"So, where are we headed?" the driver asked.

"Well... any place where they can help us get back home." Ruby answered.

"Well, we'll enter Pallet Town in just a few minutes. I could drop you off at a bus stop or train station. Where are you from?"

"From Vale. We are students from Beacon Academy."

"Never heard of either of these places." At that moment, all four girls of Team RWBY looked at their impromptu chauffeur as if she'd grown another head.

"Y- You've never heard of Beacon?! Or Vale?!" Yang asked.

"No?..." the driver was now confused. Was she supposed to know of such places? She also noticed her passengers looking at each other in surprise, "Uh... Is everything okay?" she asked before remembering she was driving a car and turned her attention back to the road as the trees in the valley now disappeared, making way for grass, shrubbery and, most importantly, houses and farmlands.

"What?..." Ruby reverted her attention back to the girl behind the wheel, "Oh, uh... Yeah, sure, We're fine!..."

"Right..." she then decided the best action here was to change the subject, "Say, I noticed you have a Pichu over there."

"Huh?" the reaper then looked down at the little yellow rodent sitting on her lap, "Oh, yeah, I've... found him... in the forest... Poor thing was all alone and scared."

Meanwhile, Pichu listened to the conversation, confusing him, 'But that's not how it happened! I wasn't alone. I was with my family. Why is she lying?'

"Wait, you know what this animal is?" Weiss asked.

"Well, of course! Pichu and its evolutionary relatives are among the most popular Pokémon out there!"

This time the driver kept staring ahead, so she did not notice the perplexed expressions on her passengers' faces. Yang replied hesitantly, "Uh, sure..." before turning to her teammates and silently mouthing the word 'Pokémon?'. The others shrugged in response.

"Alright, here we are! Pallet Town!"

The Huntresses looked outside through the windows and observed a large sign above the road. It was inscribed with text written in both Vytalian and - curiously enough - Mistrali script, with the former saying "WELCOME TO PALLET TOWN" and below it "A TRANQUIL SETTING OF PEACE AND PURITY". The girls then noticed the road had reached the same level as the field while the houses were higher in number.

Blake remarked, "Looks pretty nice. Are you from here?"

"Born and raised!" the driver responded proudly, "So, about that Pichu, you said you've found it wandering the woods by himself, right?"

"R- Right..." Ruby answered.

"Well, it so happens that I was on my way to my grandfather when I picked you up, so I've been thinking maybe I could take you there so he could look at the Pichu."

"Look at it?"

"Yes. I figured if you found it alone in the woods, you should make sure he is fine and healthy. After all, Pichu are baby Pokémon. They are not supposed to be on their own in the wild."

"And your grandfather could help us with this one?"

"Yes, and if everything is alright and you would want to keep the little guy, he could spare a Poké Ball."

"I see... Well, I suppose there's no harm in trying. We'll give it a shot."

At that moment, the reaper felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to her left and saw it was Weiss. The heiress leaned toward her partner and whispered, "What are you doing?! Are you seriously going to be taken to a place we don't know by a stranger?!"

"I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed since we entered the stranger's car. Besides, if something happens, we still have our weapons, don't we?"

"Well, I suppose so, but-"

"Um, excuse me!" the driver interjected, "Is everything okay back there?"

"Oh, yes, sure... By the way, we would like to thank you for helping us, Miss..."

"Daisy... Daisy Oak, at your service!" the driver answered as the car kept running down the highway.