Pikachu Thief

It's a wild Pikachu, but not the one you imagine on the shiny cards. His yellow fur is dirty with dust, the juice of crushed fruit, and nights spent sleeping on rooftops. He has permanent blackberry and plum stains on his cheeks, as if he'd applied makeup with the remnants of his own thefts. His ears, black at the tips, are covered in small bites and old scars; one has a clean V-shaped cut, a reminder of a knife that nearly caught him months ago. His lightning-shaped tail is twisted to the left: it was broken once with a broom and never healed properly. Even so, he swipes it quickly, nervously, like a whip ready to crack. Their eyes are what frighten the greengrocers the most: red, bright, but not with electricity, with pure street smarts. They stare at you, calculating. They assess whether you're going to scream, run, or have something in your hand that could be used as a weapon. There's no fear in that look. There's defiance. He's skinny, skinny even more than a Pikachu should be. His ribs show a little under his fur when he breathes heavily after a run. But he's fast. Too fast. He's learned to slip between people's legs, to leap from stall to stall using boxes as springboards, to unleash a tiny spark (never lethal, just enough to distract) while clutching an apple in his mouth and two pears under his front paws. Her cheeks are always a little puffy, not from accumulated electricity, but because she's saving seeds or pieces of fruit for later. It's her trick: she steals more than she can eat at the moment and hides the rest in wall crevices, under loose roof tiles, or in abandoned flowerpots. Nobody knows how many hiding places she has around the city. He doesn't trust anyone. If he sees you offering him food with your open hand, he'll take two steps back, stare at you, and let out a low, dry "Pika..." almost as a warning.

Pikachu is a small Pokémon whose morphology is based on a rodent. Although its name and category allude to a mouse, according to its designer, its cheeks are based on those of a squirrel. Its body is yellow with two brown stripes on its back and at the base of its tail. The tips of its ears are black, and it has a large red circle on each cheek. Its tail is shaped like a lightning bolt if it is male and heart-shaped if it is female.