After a quick foray at the Tower of Cats, Kazuki had obtained a rather unnerving new party member. He recognized the espeon, knew it from seeing the one Verai had, but didn’t particularly care for more cats.

And then it turns out the thing could read his mind, solidifying his resolve to get rid of it—for both his and the cat’s sanities.

The plan is to return to Bethany. Verai had disappeared into thin fucking air after scamming and ditching him at the county jail, so trade options were thin, plus he figured leaving the town alone long enough would let the NPCs forget his crimes and the fact he broke out of prison before his sentence was up.

The moment the words BRIARBANE SETTLEMENT fade out, five stars appear in the corner of his screen.

Next thing he knows, he’s vaulting over wagons and sprinting through oncoming traffic, being pursued by a pack of police riding Mudsdale. The squad is forced to stop as the disrupted traffic turns into a jam, an argument breaking out between them and a furious cabbage merchant whose produce has gone tumbling across the street.

Kazuki runs, grinning at his luck, before remembering his priorities. Looking around, he latches onto the nearest player character sticking out of the crowd.

“YOU! GOTH!” He yells, winding his arm back. “GO LONG!”

A pokeball is sent hurtling towards the unfortunate player at mach speed.

And since he’s already on a roll with these crimes, he takes the ambush opportunity by the horns, lunging for the guy and using the distraction to mug him. It doesn’t really matter what pokemon he gets; the trade system won’t let him just foist shit on people, so if this guy is lucky, he’ll get the psychic cat for a pokemon he doesn’t care for.

And if he's not lucky, well—tough shit.