Pokémon: Starting with a Dragon Dance Gible [16]

“............”

What should I even say to start this conversation?

Cynthia stared at her screen, chewing her lip anxiously.

She wasn’t exactly terrible at interacting with people.

Since the start of her career, she’d faced plenty of challenges, growing steadily until she finally became the Sinnoh League Champion.

Surely that meant she couldn’t be called socially awkward.

A graceful and elegant beauty, Cynthia was easily the most popular female Champion in the Pokémon League. Usually, she was gentle, approachable—a kind, soft-spoken big sister.

Yet, when it came to Pokémon battles, she instantly transformed into a Valkyrie-like warrior goddess, fierce and aggressive in her tactics.

That’s how the Pokémon world saw the Sinnoh Champion Cynthia.

But initiating an online conversation with a total stranger?

This was genuinely new territory for Cynthia.

And she was even using a secret alt account.

For her, this problem was completely beyond the usual difficulty level.

After a long moment of contemplation, Cynthia typed out two very simple words:

[Drawing-Water-With-a-Bamboo-Basket]: Hi.

---

“Huh...”

Kaiba snorted softly. He’d thought the other person had something important to say, given how quickly they’d sent that friend request. He hadn’t expected just a simple “Hi.”

But after thinking it over a bit…

It was actually better than many alternatives.

If this “alt account” had immediately sent him one of those spammy messages—
something like, “My little sister’s lonely~ Add me on V, totally free XXX,” the kind that screamed scam—

Kaiba would’ve immediately rolled his eyes.

(°-°〃)!!!

And then deleted them at lightspeed.

He wasn’t dumb enough to fall for random shady ads online, okay?!

If I ever wanted something like that, I’d at least have a more reliable method (jk)...

So at least a simple “Hi” indicated the other person was probably a normal, living human—not some spam bot.

[Kaiba]: Heya~ (′▽｀)ノノ

It seemed fitting to send back a cute, friendly greeting to the first-ever viewer who’d actually bothered to leave a comment and add him as a friend.

Luckily, Cynthia couldn’t read minds, and certainly not across an internet cable or vast distance. Otherwise, if she’d known the rude assumption he’d just made—that her alt account might’ve been some shady spam account—she’d have been furious.

Who knew a simple unverified alt account could cause such indignation?

Her main account carried the official golden badge of the Pokémon League Champion—far too eye-catching on any social media platform.

For instance:
[Sinnoh Champion Cynthia and her Garchomp have entered the livestream.]
Or, [Cynthia liked this message 15 minutes ago.]

Just her casual presence online could cause waves of gossip and excitement.

As the saying went, “Fame invites scrutiny, just like a fat pig attracts attention from hungry wolves.” Cynthia definitely didn’t want every minor action to draw endless attention from curious eyes.

Not offline, and certainly not online.

That’s why she’d gradually gotten used to using a simple, anonymous alt account like [Drawing-Water-With-a-Bamboo-Basket] to browse topics that interested her from time to time.

Besides herself, practically no one else knew the owner behind this anonymous alt was actually Sinnoh Champion Cynthia herself.

...

“Hey buddy, you added me—is there something you wanted?” Kaiba asked curiously.

“Are you going to keep streaming on Poke-TV tomorrow?” Cynthia replied, deliberately ignoring his casual “buddy” greeting.

She genuinely wanted to know how Kaiba’s Gible had learned [Dragon Dance]—
and whether her own Garchomp could use the same method.

But coming right out with a blunt request like that, right off the bat… would be embarrassingly shameless, wouldn’t it?

At least, that’s what Cynthia thought.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Kaiba replied unhelpfully.

As they say, “Your words taught me… literally nothing.”

But honestly, he genuinely couldn’t guarantee anything to this random “buddy” viewer or “fan number one.”

It all depended on how he felt tomorrow, whether he had the time, or whether he’d found some better opportunities or new ideas.

Given how difficult it was proving to be to build an audience and earn money from streaming on Poke-TV alone, Kaiba figured there might be better, easier paths to earn extra income.

“If you’re planning to continue streaming your ‘[Dragon Dance] Gible’ tomorrow, my suggestion is… you probably shouldn’t,” Cynthia suddenly advised.

“…Huh? Why?” Kaiba frowned, growing slightly irritated. Apparently, his new “friend” wasn’t as friendly as he’d assumed, immediately suggesting he quit streaming altogether and go silent.

“Are you saying the viewers on Poke-TV don’t understand—cough—I mean, uh, that doesn’t sound right. What kind of streamer openly complains about their viewers like that?”

Kaiba rapidly typed back, swiftly becoming a “keyboard warrior” as he defended himself:

“Maybe regular Pokémon battle fans don’t currently realize how powerful a ‘[Dragon Dance] Gible’ is, or how much potential it has. But sooner or later, they’ll get it.”

He was furiously typing, looking like an elegant pianist performing a passionate concerto—his keyboard acting as the instrument, capturing every nuance of his feelings.

“It’s actually better if they don’t realize it yet. If people start noticing, or if a lot of people catch on, you’ll be the one in danger,” Cynthia warned.

With her experience, Cynthia could clearly see the value of a [Dragon Dance] Gible—or Garchomp—and how crucial learning that move would be. As the best-known Garchomp trainer in the world, she understood better than anyone.

She’d specifically searched for information about it—that’s exactly how she’d stumbled across Kaiba’s small, obscure livestream in the first place.

“You’re saying someone might actually come after me, just because my Gible knows [Dragon Dance]? Like, with real-world threats?” Kaiba’s eyes widened.

Initially, he hadn’t thought about this. The Pokémon world generally seemed peaceful; he’d never considered scenarios like people stealing his Pokémon or worse.

Even in the Pokémon anime, plenty of trainers raised pseudo-legendary babies without getting instantly targeted by criminal groups or poachers every time they went outside.

But better safe than sorry.

Being a bit cautious wasn’t necessarily bad.

“I guess you have a point. Maybe I was getting carried away,” Kaiba admitted with a sigh.

“I didn’t realize it earlier, but you’re actually a pretty good guy~”

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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!