#TrainMan

[externallaughinternalscream]

Manga Review: Train Man - Net Development, the Love Story of a Local Train - 9/10

*Mild Spoilers Ahead*

Proper romance themed seinen manga are hard to come by. Oftentimes, seinen categorized under the romance genre are primarily other kinds of stories that happen to have one or two romantic themes within them. Slow slice of life stories with romantic subtext, comedies that use a character’s crush as a catalyst for further jokes, eroticas and ecchis that use love as an excuse to throw beautiful half naked women at the main character. I do not mean to belittle those kinds of stories nor those that read them, but I would like to point out that more often than not, they don’t focus on being love stories. Train Man, however, is a love story.

Only once in a blue moon is there a seinen romance stories with a capital R, that are marketed towards young men and focus primarily on the characters’ romantic development. Precisely what makes Train Man so remarkable is that it is one such love story with a premise that feels completely grounded while still being truly unique. 

Train Man is based on the supposedly true story of a young man intervening when a drunk began harassing several women on a train. The young man chronicled the story on the forum site 2channel and explained how one of the women mailed him an expensive gift in thanks. Online readers dubbed the young man “Train Man'' for his heroism and the woman “Hermes'' for the expensive brand name of the gift she sent the young man. The titular “Train Man” began harboring a crush on “Hermes,” and at the encouragement of those online, invited her to meetups which eventually culminated in the two dating. Regardless of whether or not the story told by these posts were true, it captured the hearts and minds of enough readers that it prompted several media adaptations, this manga being one of them.

There are plenty of manga about two people going from strangers to lovers due to random happenstance. But you’d be hard pressed to find anything quite like Train Man. Its story centers on a man who has an entire online community of strangers united around their desire to give him advice and encouragement as he attempts to court his crush. 

A major part of what makes this story resonate, especially today, is that it puts the spotlight on how the internet can facilitate positive social interaction, particularly between total strangers. In our day and age, you can go on any forum website and you’ll find countless tight knit communities like the one that forms around our protagonist. Go on any question board and you’ll find people just like our protagonist, looking for real life advice, even if that advice is from anonymous strangers. You’ll also find anonymous strangers looking to help, trying to give useful advice, and genuinely rooting for the questioner’s success. 

What also makes the online community depicted in this manga remarkable is that it acts as an in-universe “real life audience” reacting to the protagonist. In this way, it is reminiscent of the movie the Truman Show, where an audience of real ordinary people watch and react to the life of the protagonist. The major point of difference is in the fact that this audience can speak directly to our protagonist via an internet forum which allows them to act as a very literal audience surrogate in a way that adds an interesting dynamic to the story. How many times have you watched a TV show or read a book and wished the characters could hear your voice and hear your advice? Well, this anonymous audience of everyday people advises the ML to act on his feelings as his courage in turn inspires his audience. Something I loved about this manga and wished it did more of was show how the online readers were encouraged to work on themselves as they watched the protagonist take their encouragement to heart to work on himself.

Speaking of self improvement, the emphasis on such work is what keeps this manga from wandering into the realm of wish fulfillment. The male lead realizes that one good deed isn’t magically going to make the female lead fall in love with him, so he works to make himself more appealing to her. With the encouragement of those online, he puts more care into his appearance and tries to come out of his shell. It can hardly be called wish fulfillment when a major theme of the manga is the protagonist putting in the time, money, and effort to improve himself in order to earn the object of his desire.

Naturally, as a bonafide manga about love, the romance part of the manga is one of its major strengths. Train Man does a good job of depicting what the early stages of courting and dating often look like, both the excitement and the uncertainty. A lot of the spotlight is given to the meetings between the ML and FML and is given to their gradual development from two strangers to acquaintances then eventually something more. All the way there are genuinely cute romantic moments that will make you smile, squeal, and kick your legs excitedly.

The pacing is another one of this manga’s stronger points. While many romance manga either develop so quickly that they feel forced and artificial or so slowly that they become unengaging slogs, Train Man enjoys a very steady sense of progress. The relationship between the two leads is constantly moving forward, with the only real pauses being there to allow the ML and supporting cast of online readers to discuss and reflect on his progress so far. The story is about as long as it needs to be, as if it went on longer the mangaka would have likely been forced to add in the padding and tediously sluggish development that plagues so many other romance manga. Train Man doesn’t overstay its welcome and that's part of what makes its story so engaging.

The manga’s art is made in a more cartoonish, old school style which I am personally fairly fond of. The cartoonish scribbles lend well to the manga’s lighthearted tone, but aren’t particularly aesthetically pleasing. Most readers would probably find art serviceable if occasionally found wanting, but it's not really a manga you’d read to enjoy the art anyway.

The characterization is arguably where Train Man is found most wanting, as you will find no complex or deeply fleshed out characters in this story. The manga is so focused on the relationship between the two leads that it doesn’t develop them out as characters anymore than is absolutely necessary for the narrative. Meanwhile, the supporting cast is made up of unnamed ordinary people whose lives are only really ever shown in brief snapshots as they read and react to the ML’s forum posts. This is an instance where the manga’s concise writing acts as a double edged sword. On the one hand, the narrative develops quickly and the characters are generic to the point of being ordinary and universally relatable. But on the other hand, it means that even the two leads lack much characterization beyond their relationship to one another.

One of Train Man’s quirks is that the male and female leads are never referred to by their real names, instead they are only called by their forum aliases. This was likely done for two reasons: because these aliases were all they were known by in the original forum posts and because it gives them an anonymity and universal character that makes them more relatable. As I read in the moment, I didn’t like this as I felt it robbed our ML and FML of their individual identities, as if neither of them had a birth name and their existence only mattered as it related to this story. But in hindsight I can appreciate this eccentricity as it acts as a narrative device to limit the manga readers’ knowledge about the two main characters to that which the original forum readers would’ve known about by reading the original posts on 2ch. You, the reader, never learn the real names of “Train Man” and “Hermes” because the people who originally read the original posts on 2ch never learned their real names.

Train Man is a story that I think most people would be able to enjoy on some level. However, it is not a manga to read if you are seeking complex characters, an elaborate plot, or gorgeous art.

Ultimately, Train Man only does one very specific thing, but it does it exquisitely. It is a life affirming love story. It is the story of a man who works on himself in order to be worthy of the one he loves, of the people who encourage his growth and are in turn inspired by it, and of the woman that loves him for it.

[newnewz]

Adani buys 30% in Trainman for Rs 3.5 cr

Adani Enterprises last month announced that it has signed a pact to acquire 100 per cent of SEPL.

Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm of billionaire Gautam Adani’s group, has bought a close to 30 per cent stake in Start Enterprises Pvt Ltd, which owns the online train ticket booking platform Trainman.

Adani Enterprises last month announced that it has signed a pact to acquire 100 per cent of SEPL.

In a stock exchange filing on Saturday, Adani Enterprises said Adani Digital Labs Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has bought a 29.81 per cent stake in SEPL for Rs 3.56 crore.

SEPL had a turnover of Rs 4.51 crore in 2022–23 (April 2022 to March 2023) fiscal year.

While last month, Adani Enterprises had described SEPL as “an online train booking and information platform,” on Saturday it described the firm as one into “e-commerce and website development.” The announcement last month had led to a mini-controversy with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh seeking to suggest that Adani’s takeover of Trainman may eventually result in the takeover of IRCTC — the Indian Railways’ ticketing and other services arm.

IRCTC had issued a statement to deny the allegation. Explaining the e-ticketing business segment, IRCTC had said that around 14.5 lakh reserved tickets are booked on a daily basis in Indian Railways. Out of these almost 81 per cent are e-tickets and booked through IRCTC itself. Hence, there is no competition between IRCTC and its agents, including Trainman.

Trainman, being a B2C partner of IRCTC contributes 0.13 per cent of total reserved ticketing, it had said adding since these firms are integrated with IRCTC, overall, they help the customers in a smooth ticketing process.

Founded in 2011 by Vineet Chirania and Karan Kumar, Trainman is an Indian travel booking app that enables passengers to check the PNR (Passenger Name Record) status, predicts the possibility of getting a confirmed seat in case of a wait-list, and also provides real-time updates on seat availability, running status, time table, coach position, fare calculator, etc.

Trainman is Adani group’s second investment in the travel booking and information segment. In October 2021, Adani Enterprises bought a minority stake in Flipkart’s Cleartrip Pvt Ltd, an online travel aggregator.

[blaiddraws]

man and worm

[monsoon-of-art]

sketch of Meringo seeing his reflection for the first time. Imagine seeing a body that you don't recognize, but also not remembering the alternative 🤔

[jenasu]

Okay fine I guess I have to learn how to draw the boys

[egginfroggin]

Came to the realization earlier that Emmet in the Illusory Lives AU could just.

Scruff Ingo.

Like, as far as Zoroark go, he's pretty tall due to having retained his human height (*bop bop bop* yes I know normal Zoroark are like 5 feet shhhhh), and he's just tall enough that he could pick Ingo up by the collar.

Needless to say, this is egregiously embarrassing for Ingo, because dragging siblings around by the collar is his job, and yet here Emmet is doing just that.

It goes great until biology fails Emmet and Ingo grabs his actual scruff, rendering him a limp noodle because scruffing instincts (many baby scruffables go limp when scruffed) (he's not a baby but. shhh).

Ingo just has to find his scruff first, why does Emmet have such a fantastically voluminous mane of ghost fur, how is he supposed to find any vertebrae in there.

Also sopping wet Emmet after getting hit with basically any water-type physical attack. Looks drowned. The mane just deflates like an old balloon and adds like 20 pounds of weight to his neck because it's full of so much water. He genuinely looks pathetic.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

“The ones destroying the Bible for the best part of 2000 years have been Christians ironically enough, or at least rewriting it every couple of centuries or so.

And if we are mentioning violent psychopathic Roman Emperors, let's not exclude one of the bloodiest of all: Constantine, who had more than 50,000 people executed (not counting wars). Some just because they disagreed with him over the right interpretation of the scripture of the new religion he imposed on Rome.”

-- DJ THE TRAINMAN WALKER

Nobody alive follows Xianity. They follow the reboot of the remake of the rewrite of the adaptation based on the characters from the manuscript originating from a story inspired by a revamped earlier draft from a reworked previous version of a local oral tale.

It’s not remarkable that Xians have changed Xianity over time based on the secular morality they deny. It’s not even remarkable that they have the power of creation over the same god they invented. The only thing remarkable is that they know so little about their own religion that they think it’s “true.”

They, as much as anyone else, behave as if it isn’t true, when they decide the intentions of the eternal master and creator of the universe, what it means when it does nothing, what it will be okay with, what it won’t, when an exception can be made, when it can’t, what the bible really means, what applies, what doesn’t, what’s a metaphor, what isn’t.

[nek-ros]

augh

[fourphoenixfeathers]

I joined the fandom before I even bought, much less played the game

I'm pretty sure I've heard this before but it still blew my mind to read it again.

enthralled with the prevalence of describing emmet as a/the "man in white" in the submas fandom because literally nowhere does it say that in pla at All

[fraycreations]

in light of the trainman edition botw au making it through to the third round of @ultimate-submas-tournament here is some very verrry early concept art of the young princes pre-calamity (and i even remembered their pointy ears this time!)

[hoofpeet]

Giratina is the one who sends ingo back onto the past bc he wants trains invented. Once ingo has invented the concept of trains and they meet again giratima is like "oh yah!!! You can go back now mr. Trainman" and sends him back. Ingo is like "?????"

Giratina dragging Ingo back in time not even considering the consequences of wiping his memory in the process and poking him with a stick like come on . invent trains . please (Ingo does not remember)

[aryburn-trains]

It’s a warm summer evening in August of 1958. Pittsburgh to Beaver Falls commuter Train 427 dropped its last passengers at Beaver Falls Station at 6:15 p.m. and then headed 4.6 miles north to Homewood Junction to turn on the wye located there. Alco RS-3 (Pennsy Class AS-16ms) 8856 has backed her train from the leg between the westbound main to Chicago and the Lake Branch. Beyond the last coach is Koppel, and eventually, Erie. After the trainman replaces the switch lock, the train will head forward, cross the four-track main line to reach the eastbound main and then return to Beaver Falls, where it will tie up for the night in the coach yard.

[blaiddraws]

Interlude (Intro)

[first] [all]

[previous] [next]

ALRIGHTEY FOLKS welcome to the interlude. Kind of making it an excuse to draw out a handful of things that didn't really fit in the flow of the whole thing we've got so far. but to start it off, we have a look into the trainman's first moments in Hisui...

[oshioshili]

Babatunde Olatunji - Akiwowo. (Chant To The Trainman)

[highlandswarden]

Indeed. It is an unsettling situation to be in, so I hope that if you discover you are, it is in a way that is not overly stressful. Or at least, you are given a moment to process it.

I will say, I likely do not have any memory of the events you know. I have amnesia, and was apparently sent into the past? It was a bit of a hasty and confusing conversation. So I am afraid I would not be able to offer much conversation on it even if I wanted to.

[Austin, wandering and noticing ingo, does a double take. Remembering that this place gets multiple timelines but still. It does make him go-]

Is that fucking ingo from pokemon black and white

- @wii-osha

*Ingo looks at the stranger the moment he hears his name*

Um. I am Ingo, yes? From... whatever 'Pokemon Black and White' is, I assume you are another person for whom my world is fictional? I... would prefer you not inform me about myself, if that is the case.

[monsoon-of-art]

Donut Hole - Chapter 11

It's All So Incredibly Loud

Ooh, I'm breakin' down Whispers would deafen me now You don't make a sound It's all so incredibly loud

[This is currently my favorite chapter, and it has everyone's favorite trainman with amnesia! in which Ingo has a plan and means very well, but fails utterly :). Thanks for my anonymous friend and @waywardstation for beta reading!]

[ao3 Link here!]

Ingo slowly approached Lady Sneasler as she leaned against a young spruce tree. “My Lady, while I am grateful for your aid, I do not want you battling. If everything goes according to plan, you won’t need to lift a claw until the very end.”

Lady Sneasler gently bumped her forehead against his head, rumbling reassuringly.

He knew the boy was coming. He knew that the boy would have to travel through this area. If the boy was passing through the mountains, he’d need this bridge.

It was a matter of waiting.

It took several days of waiting, and during that time, Ingo was beginning to wonder if the boy hadn’t arrived in the mountains at all. Maybe climbed up directly or had used a different path - but that was ridiculous. No one could scale the peaks without Lady Sneasler’s aid, and Ingo knew all the mountain trails like the back of his hand.

But eventually, Ingo saw a figure walking - no, limping - down the path.

Ingo wasn’t sure what he expected. A zorua, maybe. A feral child, perhaps. A ghost? It was possible, he supposed.

But Ingo set his eyes upon a young boy. Very human, painfully human. His clothing, what must have been a long sleeve jacket and pants at one point, were ripped to near shreds. Dirt and mud and what looked like dried blood caked his body, scraps of fabric acting as makeshift bandages. 

And behind him was a pokemon that Ingo had never seen in his life.

Despite having a clear limp - Palina explaining how he was injured by a drapion flashing in his mind - the boy was still making haste towards the bridge.

Going a little too fast, if he kept going he’d run right into-

THUD!

It took everything Ingo had not to immediately topple over. The boy was not so lucky, landing on his back and groaning. “Why were you standing in the middle of the path-?! I oughta fine you for that-”

Upon realizing what he bumped into, the boy scrambled back a good ten feet on his hands and knees before standing back up. He made a feeble attempt to brush off the dust and dirt, the pokemon beside him putting a paw on his head in a comforting motion.

The boy turned to Ingo and did a double-take. Ingo was used to strange looks by now, but the look that this young man was giving him was…especially strange. The boy muttered to his partner, gesturing wildly and in a very exaggerated fashion.

Finally, the boy spoke. “H-Hey! You! I need to cross that bridge! C-Can you move, In- sir? Uhm…who are you?”

“Ah.” Ingo adjusted the brim on his cap. This boy, Berry , he needed help. Needed help badly . He would have to tread very, very carefully, lest the boy run away like a terrified ralts.

(And yet. And yet. And yet. Familiarity crackled at the base of his skull. Was it the hair? The way the boy held himself? And yet. And yet. And yet.)

“I’m merely a man who lives in the mountains.” He answered. He had assumed the boy was smart enough to recognize the symbols of the clans, and as such he had changed his wardrobe. Instead of his usual parka, he was wearing a simple white one that he was given when he first arrived, and not officially part of the clan. “I don’t see others, usually.”

Tilting his head, Berry looked him over. “Are you…part of them?” The suspicion in his voice made Ingo wince. What had this boy been through?

“Who?”

“Team Gala-” He stopped, muttering something to himself before continuing. “Nevermind. Are you gonna let me cross that bridge behind you? I can’t climb up, the only way forward is…forward! So uh. Can you move?”

Ingo straightened his back, looking between the two. “I have never seen a pokemon like that before, young man.” It looked like a gardevoir. But it also looked like a gallade. Curious. “I was hoping, before I let you pass…would you be willing to battle pokemon with me?”

Berry’s eyes lit up, in a way that was so achingly familiar. “B-Battle? You wanna pokemon battle?!”

“If you are unfamiliar with the concept-”

“No! No no, I know what they are!” he was getting more worked up now, shifting from one foot to the other. Behind him, the strange creature chirruped. “Yeah! Yeah!! I’d love to battle you sir! It’d be an honor!”

An honor?

Ingo reached into his jacket for the pokeball containing tangela…and hesitated.

Battling was one of the best ways to learn more about someone; their type preferences, their battling style, how they treated their pokemon. The boy seemed so enthusiastic to battle as well…his fellow wardens had long stopped accepting his requests to battle.

And Ingo was verrry curious about Berry’s partner.

Subtly, his hand shifted to grab gliscor's pokeball instead. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what type is your pokemon, there?” He asked, and with a flick of his wrist, gliscor was on the field.

If it was an alternative kirlia evolution, it was no doubt a psychic type. The real question was the secondary typing. Would it remain a fairy type? Or would it pick up the fighting type?

“It’s uh!” Berry stammered as his partner took its place on the field. “Strong! Strong type!”

He raised an eyebrow at that. “...fairy type?”

“What’s a fairy type?”

So Berry didn’t know either, then. This battle would surely be interesting.

Taking his familiar stance - and noting that Berry took a fighting stance as well - the battle began.

And Ingo had never been happier.

There was this gaping hole in Ingo’s chest that could only - seemingly - be filled by battling. Battling pokemon was second nature to him, and it reminded him of a life that eluded his memories, albeit briefly. It felt right. It made him feel… complete.

Battling with his fellow wardens, while fun and exciting, never could fill the hole completely. It was always a good effort on their part (especially with how Ingo was leagues ahead with battling prowess), but it was never enough.

But this battle. Oh. Oh this battle.

Berry confidently commanded his pokemon in battle with no fear! With complete trust in his pokemon! Shouting praises when his strange Maybe-Gardevoir-Maybe-Gallade managed a hit. Even Lady Irida would hesitate in battle, so fearful that her pokemon’s attacks might ricochet and hit her on accident.

This was how battling was supposed to be. Pokemon and person battling side by side, their hearts as one.

"BRAVO!" Ingo bellowed as he watched gliscor narrowly avoid a close combat. "If you continue upon your route, your talent will take you to a destination called Victory!"

Berry looked ready to cry at that, like he had been handed an early birthday present. "Y-You really mean that? Really really??"

Tipping his cap and giving the boy a rare smile, Ingo replied, "I really do, Palmer."

Why did he say that Why did he say that Why did he say that Why-

Berry’s face fell. In a matter of moments, his demeanor had done a complete u-turn. Even his pokemon stopped battling, keenly aware of the boy’s negative reaction.

“What did you call me?” the boy asked, barely above a whisper.

Deescalate. Deescalate. Deescalate.

Ingo nervously adjusted the brim of his cap. “D-Disregard that last announcement. My mind isn’t as sharp as it-”

“What did you call me?!” he was shouting now, voice cracking from pubescent anger. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

"Young man! Please, cool your engine!" Ingo pleaded, hands raised to calm the boy. "Berry, I do not know your relationship to this 'Palmer' fellow, but it was merely a slip of the tongue-"

This had the complete opposite effect. Berry practically exploded, "HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?! WHO TOLD YOU MY NAME?! HOW DO YOU KNOW MY FATHER?!?"

Ingo didn't remember who this Palmer was, and he definitely didn't remember any children related to him. Of all the times for his memory to actually connect, why did it have to be now?!

The boy was beginning to derail, tugging at his hair and loudly talking to no one in particular - “Oh my god, Oh my god, they have my dad! They have my dad! Does my dad work for Team Galactic here?! Is he dead?! Am I next?! ”

Deescalation was no longer an option.

It was time for Ingo to act upon his initial plan, despite how much it hurt him to disregard the rules of safety and battling.

Reaching into his coat, Ingo sent out tangela. “Tangela! Gliscor! It’s time we end this! As we’ve practiced!” Upon receiving the command, gliscor flew above the battle, flapping its wings. Tangela took a ready stance, waiting for the right moment.

“Oh NO! NO NO NO! YOU’RE NOT ENDING ME!” Berry shouted, stamping his feet. “Fern! Buddy! Tear them apart !”

What an utterly terrifying thing for a child to say, especially when directed at him. If Melli’s warning and Palina’s recollection was only partially true, this boy was capable of a lot of damage. He needed to end this.

“SLEEP POWDER, NOW! ”

Tangela shook itself, creating a large cloud of green spores. The Maybe-Gardevoir-Maybe-Gallade easily stepped aside, which is exactly what Ingo hoped. High above, gliscor flapped its wings to create a strong wind.

The wind sent the cloud of spores flying right at the boy, with no chance of dodging it. Berry tried to shield himself, covering his hands with his arms as if trying to block an attack - but he couldn’t stop the cloud of spores from engulfing him.

The effect was immediate. Berry began to stagger, his balance failing, his limbs growing heavy. “W-What did you do?! What did you do to me?!”

“It’s worse if you fight it, young man.” Ingo said, recalling tangela back to its ball. “You may not understand now, but I’m doing what’s best for you.”

Berry slurred something rude-sounding in reply. It was taking all of his energy not to completely pass out then and there. His partner pokemon stood and watched, horrified and stunned into inaction, not knowing what to do to help.

The boy stumbled backwards, his legs finally giving out on him. Before he could hit the ground, Lady Sneasler shot from the trees and caught him. The boy was so small in her massive paws, and Ingo could tell she was surprised by the lack of weight to his frame.

Ingo approached his noble, giving the boy a proper look over now that he was closer. He was much dirtier up-close, and now Ingo could properly see all the bruises and scrapes on his skin. His eyes lingered on the bags under the boy’s eyes, the hollowness to his cheeks, the pronounced tendons in his wrists.

“Ah. Your battle was not bad at all. However, we seem to have done slightly better than you.” He said with a nod and tip of the cap. “Perhaps, under better circumstances…we would really like to battle with you again.”

(Who was ‘we’?)

Berry, much to Ingo’s surprise, was still conscious. Barely. He was struggling to keep his eyes even half-open, breathing heavily. “M-murderer…kidnapper…t-traitor…” 

Slowly, he turned his head to look at Ingo.

“A-And to think…” the boy wheezed, giving him a look of complete disgust. “I…I used to look up…to you…”

Ingo's blood ran like ice.

Did…did this child know him? He had never met this child before, not that he remembers. But Berry spoke as if he knew Ingo, perhaps not personally but still knew-

No. No. The boy was clearly delirious. “R-Right.” said Ingo, trying to brush off the comment and failing. “Let’s take him back to the settlement, my Lady. The quicker we can get him there, the better-”

He turned to the bridge, finding Berry’s strange partner pokemon blocking the path now. It was practically shaking with rage, standing there in complete silent fury.

“Ah. Fern, was it?” Ingo asked, picking up the boy’s bag off the floor. Inside were pokeballs. Occupied pokeballs. No one in the clans would use these…but why did he? “Did…did he keep you in one of these?”

‘Fern’ slowly lifted an arm, pointing at the child in Lady Sneasler’s arms. The message was clear.

Give Him Back.

It would go against regulation to capture another person’s pokemon. Ingo had broken enough rules today as it was. “I’m very sorry, but we must take him.”

Ingo was stuck at a crossroads, as it were. He wasn’t sure what to do with this strange pokemon blocking his path. There was no way he could take it to the settlement, it’d cause a panic. He could try to battle it-

Lady Sneasler stepped forward, muzzle furrowed into a snarl. Fern stepped back. Lady Sneasler let out a soft warning growl, and when the pokemon didn’t move, she yowled like a furious luxray. She adjusted the grip to hold Berry in one hand, readying a poison jab.

The opposing pokemon looked terrified. And after a brief moment of hesitation, it teleported away.

Ingo adjusted his cap. “Hm. Perhaps the boy and it weren’t so close.”

How strange. If it were a psychic type, why did it seem so afraid of Lady Sneasler’s poison? If it were a fairy type, how could it have learned close combat? 

He shook his head. “Such strangeness. If we begin now, my Lady, we can get to the settlement by nightfall.”

---

[I want you all to know my notes had this as "Ingo Kidnaps a child, the chapter"] [Also: Barry DOES know about Ingo and Emmet. His dad is a Battle Head, he wants to be run his own little Battle-Thing, of course he's gonna look up all of the global battle facilities. He doesn't, however, know that Ingo went missing. He went on his pokemon journey during that]