Japanese episode

Who's that Pokemon? Kunigidama
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Satoshi, Takeshi, and Kasumi were enjoying a break from their Johto journeying, and settled down near a stream for lunch. After Kasumi set the table, she and Satoshi called out to Takeshi as he sat silently near the cooking stew to see if lunch was ready yet. To their horror and surprise, Takeshi collapsed without a word beside the stew pot. Kasumi felt his forehead and confirmed it-- Takeshi was very ill.

Back at an abandoned home they had been staying at, they placed Takeshi in bed. It was clear he had run a fever from working so hard to take care of his younger travelling companions, and had severly overdone it. To try and repay Takeshi's years of kindness, Satoshi and Kasumi agreed to do something nice for him, but before they could decide on it, Takeshi bolted out of bed with an unexpected urgency, insisting that he was fit enough to continue his duties, but his friend and his own fever eventually convinced him to take it easy and stay in bed. Taking his notebook from his backpack, Satoshi and Kasumi assured him they would take care of everything so he could rest and regain his health.

Unfortunately, Satoshi and Kasumi didn't know what they were getting into. First on Takeshi's schedule was caring for their pokemon... starting with Ishitsubute and Iwaku. Rock pokemon were difficult for the two trainers to handle cleaning, however, and Kasumi consulted Takeshi's notebook and looked through the cleaning section. Satoshi, dumb as a board, realized he could clean Iwaku faster with a cleaning solution he had readily available-- water from Waninoko's water gun. Panic ensued as the rock-type Iwaku accidentally throttled Satoshi and Kasumi while evading the water gun.

Meanwhile, Takeshi's fevered mind was dreaming up a fantasy-- a flowered field with dancing Kireihana, but more importantly, three of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. They beckoned to him, but as he ran happily to them, a flaming planet shot down and forced him into a black hole!

Waking up in a most confused state, he found Golbat and Kunigidama watching over him. Hearing Satoshi and Kasumi arguing loudly outside over their new duties, Takeshi decided he was needed once again and began to get up, but as he did, Golbat used his sonic waves and paralyzed Takeshi into lying back down. Realizing his pokemon cared deeply for his well-being, he was overcome with gratitude and relented.

Outside, Satoshi set out to find some food --fruit, ideally-- to help Takeshi recover. As he travelled, however, he realized all the trees in the area had been stripped of their apples. In a nearby grove, it was Roketto-Dan who had sucked the apples from their branches using a large vacuum-like device, aspiring to sell the fresh apples at top dollar and make some profits. Confronting them, Satoshi started a battle, only to get Pikachu sucked up by Kojirou's vacuum. In the predictable battle that ensued, Satoshi defeated Roketto-dan and decided to take some of the apples that the villains left behind.

In a new fever-induced dream, Takeshi found himself in a cloudy realm where Butterfree flew, he was greeted by the same three ladies from his previous encounter. Running towards them, he was rudely interrupted as the cloudy floor gave way and dropped him...

...to the floor of the abandoned house as he woke up. Asking "where'd the girls go?" only brought skeptical faces from Kasumi, who asked if he was really all right. Realizing his dream had ended, he accepted the cut apples from Satoshi, and nearly choking on them eating too fast, slowed down and agreed that the fresh apples would help him get healither enough to finally meet those girls. Satoshi and Kasumi looked at each other, confused.

As Satoshi cut some firewood, Kasumi began her doomed quest to make dinner, one of Takeshi's stews in particular. Adding too much sugar, and then way too much salt, Kasumi abandoned it in order to make up "Kasumi-chan's Special," which ended up predictably as poisonous as you could imagine. Too full of pride to admit it was poison, Kasumi took a big bite in front of Satoshi.

As they all settled down to sleep, Roketto-dan peeked in on them, stealing Kasumi's stew which only Musashi could stomach, and devised a tricky plan to steal their pokemon. Using a cardboard cut-out of Satoshi and the voice-changing megaphone from season one, they lured Satoshi's pokemon away and into a net trap, then bolted away.

In Takeshi's next dream, he found himself on a beautiful sunny beach with crisp air and clean ocean waves... and those same three girls. This time, before he could run to them, a gigantic wave flushed him away, much to his grief and frustration. Waking up by Golbat's hand, he saw his friends running after Roketto-dan.

Running to their balloon, Kojirou used a multitude of cranes to catch everyone's pokemon, even Iwaku! Unable to reach them, all seemed lost, until Golbat came to the rescue, deflating the balloon in one swipe and freeing the pokemon. Takeshi had recovered enough to save them with Kunugidama, Golbat and finally Iwaku! They thanked Takeshi, for if not for him their pokemon would have been taken for sure. Being modest, Takeshi simply replied that the gratitude should go to Kunigidama and Golbat.

The next morning, Satoshi and Kasumi awoke pleasantly to the smell of delicious food, and Takeshi! Happy to see him healthy again, they were surprised to learn he was really just eager to go back to sleep and finally meet those girls!

And that's just what he was able to do.

> To Be Continued