Chapter 256: The Heart of Reinforcements

Once again, he arrived at the fragrance raw materials shop.

The beautiful shopkeeper lady, seeing it was him, immediately came forward. "Mr. Baimu!"

"Uh."

Baimu paused his steps, realizing she had already recognized him. "Hello, I'm here to buy raw materials."

"Please, come in, come in."

The shopkeeper lady, beaming with smiles, led him through the door. "How did yesterday's results turn out? Any difficulties you ran into? The shop offers free guidance services for customers~"

"Difficulties, not really…" Baimu kept his eyes straight ahead, pretending not to notice the gazes from the surrounding customers. "But I'm quite interested in using the equipment over there to make fragrance."

"Using the equipment, you say?" The shopkeeper lady's smile widened. "If you don't mind, I'll teach you."

He had originally just planned to stock up on raw materials before leaving, but since she was so enthusiastic, he decided to take the opportunity to experience the process of making fragrance with the equipment.

Although he'd watched plenty of videos online, hands-on practice was still a must.

The shopkeeper lady was extremely attentive, teaching Baimu step by step from scratch how to use it, and the latter, drawing on an afternoon's experience making aromatherapy, understood the entire production process after just one listen.

This thing wasn't like making Pokéblocks where you could just toss in berries directly, but fundamentally it was still pretty simple—the difficult parts were all handled by the machine; he just needed to remember the recipe and make some settings and adjustments.

The "handmade" fragrance was successfully completed.

Baimu took out the finished fragrance, made a quick judgment of its quality, and couldn't help but marvel at how impressive technological development really was—as long as the order and quantities weren't wrong, quality control was remarkably stable.

"Thank you."

He expressed his gratitude to the shopkeeper lady who had patiently guided him throughout.

The latter smiled and waved her hand. "No problem, it's what I should do—Mr. Baimu, I have a small request, and I wonder if you could grant it."

Baimu's hand, which had been reaching for his money, paused. "... Go ahead."

"I'd like to take a photo with you and Skitty—would you be so kind as to allow it!" The shopkeeper lady suddenly pressed her palms together, her face taking on a pleading, prayer-like expression.

So it was a photo together.

"Of course."

Baimu nodded and pulled a Poké Ball from his pocket, opening it.

Pop!

"Skitt?"

Skitty landed nimbly, looking around with a slightly bewildered expression.

Baimu was about to explain to it when he heard a barely suppressed scream from beside him. "Ah! Skitty! So cute!"

The two of them turned their heads in unison, and saw the shopkeeper lady forcefully suppressing her own face, which had flushed red with excitement. Upon noticing their startled gazes, she awkwardly coughed twice.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself."

The other customers in the shop, upon seeing Skitty, had their eyes light up one after another.

Even in the Pokémon world, the majority of people surfed the internet. Perhaps they hadn't recognized who Baimu was just now, but upon seeing a Skitty wearing a bell and a red ribbon, how could they possibly fail to recognize it?

However, they were all rather reserved, not rashly approaching or disturbing the interaction over there.

"It's fine."

Baimu bent down and told Skitty about the photo.

The latter, upon hearing this, showed a delighted expression. "Skitt?"

I have fans too?

"Uh." He glanced at the shopkeeper lady, who was equally overjoyed, constantly tidying her sideburns and the stray hairs on her forehead, and checking her makeup with a small mirror, and thought to himself that she was indeed a fan.

They quickly took the photo. The shopkeeper lady, looking at the finished product, was both happy and a bit reluctant to part with it. After admiring it for a while, she pleaded again: "Could I take one more? A little closer together~"

Baimu looked at Skitty, and seeing that it also looked like it hadn't had its fill of photos, said: "How about I take one of just the two of you? I happen to have a camera with me."

"Really? Is it really okay?" The shopkeeper lady was overjoyed, and upon receiving a confirming response, immediately said: "From now on, whenever you come to our shop to buy things, it's all half price!"

"Half price! Then I won't stand on ceremony."

Upon hearing this, Baimu's smile instantly became much more sincere—half the price was no small sum. He then took out his camera and began photographing the shopkeeper lady and Skitty.

At first they were still rather reserved, but later they very naturally hugged, winked, nuzzled cheeks, and did all sorts of intimate poses.

Skitty's adorable and charming appearance enchanted the watching customers and staff, making them absolutely green with envy. Seeing the photo session end, they could no longer hold back and crowded over.

"Excuse me, could I take a photo too?"

"Pretty please, big brother!"

"I'm a fan of you guys too~"

A flock of twittering girls chattering away. When they crowded together, the scents of various fragrances also mingled.

Baimu, hearing these words, couldn't help but show an awkward smile and planned to refuse—after all, if this went on, there would be no end to it; reject one and another would appear.

But at this moment, a quick-witted staff member directly pulled down the shop's roller shutter, preventing people outside from noticing what was happening inside. This also caused the number of customers plus staff to remain at fourteen forever.

He couldn't help but turn his head to look at Skitty—it seemed to be having a great time…

"If it agrees, I have no objections either." Baimu left the choice to his Pokémon.

"Skitt!"

Skitty was naturally more than happy. It had watched so many videos related to gorgeous contests—both in-competition matches and post-match interview segments—and was well aware of how it should display its charm.

And so.

Baimu had no choice but to take photos for nearly half an hour or more, and then create a group on PokéCom, adding all of them and uploading the photos.

After all that fuss, he almost forgot what he had originally come here to do. Fortunately, the shopkeeper lady very considerately had the raw materials prepared for him.

"You've worked hard~ How about dinner together tonight?"

The shopkeeper lady smiled and extended an invitation to him.

"Thank you for the invitation, but I'm planning to head to Battle Town tomorrow, so I'd like to prepare tonight." Baimu politely declined.

If he didn't have so many materials to process, he might not have minded sharing dinner with this beautiful and elegant woman. Unfortunately, if the raw materials weren't processed in time, their freshness would be lost.

He was still thinking about practising handcrafted incense-making a few more times.

The shopkeeper lady heard the outright refusal, hid her disappointment without a flicker, and said with a light smile, "Then I wish you a smooth journey. By the way, here's my card."

"Thanks."

All Baimu took the card and thanked her, then called out to the Bibarel still surrounded in the middle, "Let's go back!"

"Che~"

Bibarel walked right out at the word, grabbed his outstretched hand without any hesitation, "Chido!"

"I don't want to be blocked in the street. Let's talk about it in the next town." All Baimu refused its suggestion of walking back hand in hand.

"Fairy Wood Strange Fate"

"Chido!"

Bibarel puffed up its cheeks in a huff, patted the Poké Ball at his waist, and went back to rest.

"See you all."

All Baimu said goodbye to the others in the shop, pulled open the roller door, and left.

The group of women watched his retreating back, their faces still flushed with the joy brought by excitement.

The shopkeeper lady took out her phone, saw that All Baimu had posted the photo and then left the group, and spoke up: "Ladies, how about we start a fan club for All Baimu and Bibarel? Like the Mi Ke Li fan club."

Those present were basically all regulars; the handcrafted perfume field was actually very small, and they all knew each other.

Hearing the shopkeeper lady say this, they nodded without hesitation, "Sure, sure!"

5:12 PM.

The All Baimu and Bibarel fan club was officially established, with the shopkeeper lady as its first-generation president. She looked at the photo with Bibarel on her phone, then at the photo with All Baimu, and unconsciously broke into a happy expression.

"Hehe~"

Of course.

The person in question had no idea about this.

He glanced at the business card the shopkeeper lady had given him. "Kita Ayane? Is it Kita, Ayane, or Kitaaya, ne?"