Pokémon: Starting with a Dragon Dance Gible [4]

Kaiba had made up his mind: it was time to shift gears and start living like a proper Pokémon Trainer.

“Uh… I’ll place an emergency grocery order, but for now, this will have to do. Here, Gible.”

He grabbed a “King of Kings” brand sausage—the legendary hot dog—from his desk, tore it open, and tossed it to Gible.

Whatever I eat, you eat too.

If it was good enough for the Trainer, it was good enough for the Pokémon. That was only fair, right?

“KapuKapu~”

Shark-shark opened its giant mouth and swallowed the sausage whole—plastic wrapping, metal ring, and all.

“….”

Kaiba fell silent.

No doubt about it—Gible had a phenomenal appetite.

In the Pokémon anime, Ash’s Gible had been a goofball of a glutton, once chomping down an entire Team Rocket mech without batting an eye.

It all vanished into that bottomless black hole of a belly.

Thank Arceus he’d pulled his hand back just in time earlier. If he’d been even a second too slow, that [Bite] might’ve taken a finger off.

Even if transmigration had given him a sturdier, enhanced physique, the outcome could’ve been… unpleasant.

He would’ve started this journey looking like a Shanks who fought Sea Kings on Day One.

Kaiba: Groudon, Kyogre—do me a favor and call off your battle, would you? What, think you’re above divine intervention now?

After feeding Gible a few more of those King-of-Kings sausages—none of which it seemed even remotely picky about—Kaiba paused with the last one still in hand.

(°-°〃)

Wait a sec.

What exactly are these sausages made of?

Back on Earth, regular hot dogs were a blend of pork, chicken, starch, and your usual list of artificial additives.

Basic life knowledge. Nothing surprising there.

But in the Pokémon world… what kind of “meat” did they even use?

The more Kaiba thought about it, the more his skin crawled.

Don’t go there. Don’t connect the dots. Don’t dig too deep.

Were Pokémon-world hot dogs just… all starch? Zero meat?

And if there was meat—was it lab-grown protein?

Sure, let’s just go with that for now. Sounds safe.

“Giegie—!”

The next morning, a red-and-white blur flapped down onto Kaiba’s dorm balcony, dressed like a festive little Christmas courier.

It was a Pokémon called Delibird.

Known for carrying food in its tail and delivering it to others, Delibird was a natural-born mailmon. That white “gift bag” it held? Actually just the hollow tip of its tail.

Yeah, Pokémon are… kind of wild, huh?

Because of this innate trait, Delibird had become society’s de facto postal Pokémon.

Of course, with the decline of traditional mail, Delibird had long since switched careers—now retrained to work in parcel delivery and food courier services.

Just like how Corviknight, with its high-altitude stamina and stable flight, ran the Flying Taxi service—a sort of Pokémon world version of Uber.

And then you had Machoke and Machamp doing moving and heavy-lifting jobs or muscle-for-hire services.

Or the even stronger Pokémon like Conkeldurr and Gurdurr, who could wrestle Machamp and win, now working on construction sites as true blue-collar fighting-types, forged in dust and cement.

In this world, tough jobs were almost always handled by Pokémon specialized for the task.

Thanks to this Pokémon-powered labor force, society’s overall productivity had skyrocketed—lifting average living standards across the board.

The economic base determines the superstructure.

A rule true in every world, every human society—without exception.

“Giegie~~~”

Delibird clumsily raised a flipper in salute. It had just finished delivering the package Kaiba ordered the night before.

“Thanks for your hard work, Delibird.”

Kaiba greeted it with a warm smile.

Sure, Delibird wasn’t exactly a powerhouse in battle—among a roster of over a thousand Pokémon, it was pretty easy to overlook.

But in the hands of the right Trainer, even Delibird could pull off god-tier moments.

Kaiba firmly believed this.

Someday, there would be a Delibird that, through sheer dedication, and two and a half years of hard training in singing, dancing, rapping, and basketball…

…would evolve into my brother, the ultimate Iron Bundle.

And when that day came, all those haters dragging Delibird through the mud?

Y’all better get ready to eat your words.

No one touches the eggs laid by my brother.

Mission complete, Delibird flapped its tiny wings and took off again—off to deliver its next package.

Kaiba opened his delivery immediately.

Inside were a few essential supplies for Gible: bottles of Moomoo Milk from Miltank Dairy Co., and some mid-grade Pokémon kibble.

He’d used stacked coupons to buy everything. The name of the game was maximum cost-efficiency.

High-end Pokéblocks? Absolutely out of his budget.

Even a single bag of top-tier blocks would nuke his entire monthly food budget.

So for now, the best Kaiba could afford to feed Gible was the basic, reasonably priced combo of Moomoo Milk and general-purpose Pokémon chow.

“Kapu~”

Drawn by the delicious scent, Gible peeked out from the doorway, using its tiny fin to prop itself up. Its nose (or whatever equivalent it had) was highly sensitive to food.

Gible: |?ω?｀)

“Drink up, Gible. This is your destiny.”

Kaiba twisted open the bottle, poured some milk and kibble into a pair of bowls, and handed them over.

He’d decided. Starting today, he was going to raise Gible with everything he had.

After all, this wasn’t just any Gible.

This was a special, modified Gible—born already knowing [Dragon Dance].

Its future was full of limitless potential.

Kaiba’s Gible would carry the hopes and dreams of all Garchomps—past, present, and future—and blaze a new legend for its species.

Because…

No other Garchomp out there could use [Dragon Dance].

This was the curse of the beastme—ahem, of all Garchomps.

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T/N: heh ozymandias' hot dogs hehehehe

This is a fan translation of 宝可梦，开局龙舞圆陆鲨 by 眼含泪光 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!