Chapter 206: Slacking-Off Coral

Sun Coral?

No, it's Sun Dead Coral.

It's rare to find a Pokémon that wears a long face and constantly expresses "emo," but clearly the Galarian Sun Coral is a master of this art.

It differs greatly from the Sun Coral that is always brimming with vitality, even possessing the Vitality Ability—its very mouth-corner is turned downward.

It constantly displays some sort of listless or displeased emotion.

Baimu looked at it and felt as though he could hear it saying, "I'm already dead, what more do you want," "Give it a rest, the coral's already gone and you won't even let me lie flat," "Please let me die in peace."

Of course, all of the above came from Baimu's imagination.

After parting ways with Xiaosheng, he became thoroughly immersed in communicating with the Galarian Sun Coral—if one-sided communication could even be called communication.

Fortunately, although this fellow wouldn't take the initiative to absorb the offered Aura, it was hopelessly addicted to glowing cuisine, especially the Pokémon food specially prepared for it—it would eat however much was given, the hole on its forehead would puff out smoke and cover the bowl, and once the smoke retracted, nothing was left inside.

It didn't let the money Baimu spent in the kitchen go to waste.

Unfortunately, after eating it would fall back into depression, turning to stone and playing dead… no wait, it was already in a post-death state to begin with.

In short, as long as no one attacked it, it wouldn't do a thing.

No matter how Baimu poked at it, there wasn't even a hint of reaction.

This self-imposed lockdown only broke when the Jangmo-o charged over and bit it.

Perhaps it was because the Trainer had been paying too much attention to the Galarian Sun Coral lately, causing it to harbor resentment, or perhaps the Galarian Sun Coral's attitude of ignoring the Trainer was very punchable, causing it to harbor resentment.

In any case, Jangmo-o found the Galarian Sun Coral very displeasing.

And as a blind dragon, the most direct way to express displeasure was—ramming and biting.

Before Baimu could even react, Jangmo-o had taken a chomp.

Crunch.

The attacked Galarian Sun Coral wouldn't stand for it. Although it didn't pick fights and didn't fear death, it immediately activated its battle form, all its tentacles extending out, and bit back at Jangmo-o.

The moment its smoke-like tentacles poked, a greenish light flowed from Jangmo-o's body along the tentacles and into the latter's body.

Baimu was alarmed at first, then realized what was happening.

Isn't that 【Strength Absorb】!

Just as expected.

After being sucked on by the Galarian Sun Coral, the force of Jangmo-o's bite immediately weakened considerably. And seeing that biting wasn't working, Jangmo-o directly began charging up in its mouth…

"Hey! That won't do!"

Baimu stepped in just in time to stop Jangmo-o from blasting the room to pieces.

"Mo Nao~"

Jangmo-o felt a bit wronged, so it insisted on gnawing on his hand.

He decisively gave up his left hand, using his right to stroke the Galarian Sun Coral. "Don't be nervous, fighting is wrong, I'll teach it a lesson—"

Before he could finish, the latter had already retracted.

Baimu: "……"

That's not giving me any face at all!

As he thought this in his heart, he then saw the Galarian Sun Coral's eyes light up again, and it extended its smoke-like tentacles to poke him once.

Hmm… no feeling?

Isn't it absorbing energy?

Then what does that mean? A polite response?

Baimu decided to seek help from an outside guest, remotely connecting with N in Iron Town. "Help!"

"What happened?"

N's face always wore a warm smile, and then he saw the slacking-off Galarian Sun Coral.

After a round of explanation.

N began trying to remotely communicate with the Galarian Sun Coral…

No response.

"It seems it doesn't really like communicating with others." The green-haired youth said: "This is actually fairly common among Pokémon, just like humans, there are individuals among them who aren't good at interacting. Rather than language, you can try more physical contact."

"Physical contact?"

"Yes, such as stroking, gentle patting, even some Pokémon massage techniques. Once it gets familiar with you, things will probably get much better."

"Understood."

Baimu nodded, lowered the frequency of his speech, and increased the frequency of rubbing its body surface, just like when he used to rub that wooden plaque.

Perhaps because it had stayed underwater for too long and been eroded by seawater, the Galarian Sun Coral's body surface looked smooth but was actually very rough.

"If I use sandpaper, will you hit me?"

He asked casually, but figured the Galarian Sun Coral didn't know what sandpaper was, and slowly began rubbing with one hand.

He hadn't rubbed twice.

The Galarian Sun Coral revealed its eyes, and its tentacles followed suit, but upon discovering it was Baimu handling it, it retracted again.

Does this count as a display of trust?

Baimu couldn't figure it out, so he used the voice function to operate his phone Pokédex.

On the Pokédex, the Galarian Sun Coral's information was as follows.

【Pokémon: Sun Coral (Galarian Form)】

【Type: Ghost】

【Gender: Female】

【Height: 53cm/0.48kg】

【Trait: Cursed Body】

【Level: 35】

【Moves: Tackle / Harden / Astonish / Disable】

【Ancient Power / Misfire / Curse / Whirlpool】

【Strength Sap / Destiny Bond / Black Fog / Strange Light】

A dream variant, level thirty-five, twelve moves — as a wild Pokémon, Galarian Corsola was outstanding enough; the notes on the clue hadn't been lying.

Even though it was another slow Pokémon, All Baimu also knew that rather than waiting for a Pokémon that fit his team composition to show up, it was better to go find a suitable one himself.

It was just that Galarian Corsola's lazy temperament was truly exasperating.

Just how should he stimulate its enthusiasm?

All Baimu thought briefly, then decided to wait until Galarian Corsola got used to eating several meals a day, and then suddenly stop feeding it, and also stop the action of rubbing it.

—

Two days after the fishing competition ended.

The Love Goddess Milotic arrived at Xiaosheng's destination, the Unova region.

Strictly speaking, the two sides hadn't been in contact for very long, yet Xiaosheng had still developed a fairly good impression of All Baimu, especially since the latter had also saved him.

"Big Brother All Baimu, goodbye!"

Standing on the dock, Dasheng waved goodbye to him, both hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone, "Once I get back to Hoenn, let's battle again! I'll definitely win next time!"

The best way for Pokémon trainers to communicate with each other was undoubtedly through Pokémon battles.

In the heat of passion, both sides could feel each other's will with absolute certainty.

"Okay!"

All Baimu waved along, his face full of smiles.

As a ten-year-old boy, Xiaosheng, who had just set out, still appeared rather immature, reckless, and full of a sense of justice — in every respect, not much stronger than the Ash of the original series.

But Xiaosheng also had his own traits: humility and the ability to learn from experience.

The experience of having once looked after those Pokémon of Norman at the Petalburg Gym had also laid a solid foundation for his Kirlia and Misdreavus, so even without Brock accompanying him, his Pokémon presumably wouldn't end up weak in the future.

And not long after.

He himself was also about to set foot on a new journey.

A land both familiar and unfamiliar was waiting for him.