Chapter 274: A Show-Off Convention

When the sun had fully sunk below the horizon,

the gathering began.

On the bonfire platform that had long since been erected, someone tossed a torch into it; blazing flames leapt skyward, lighting up the pitch-black night together with the streetlamps and neon signs.

People and Pokémon let out cheerful cries, enjoying the pleasure of free-flowing drinks and an all-you-can-eat barbecue.

And at this moment—

On the circular stage at the very center of the beach, a group of people wearing sailor shirts with black bandanas tied around their heads walked up; the one at the front was a woman with a fluffy hairstyle.

Holding a microphone, she openly called out to everyone below:

"We are the Neo Water Fleet! An organization dedicated to protecting the marine environment! And we are the hosts of tonight's gathering! If there are friends who share our ideals, welcome to join the Neo Water Fleet! Tonight, let us all enjoy ourselves!"

"Ooooh!"

"Neo Water Fleet! Neo Water Fleet!"

"Roar! Roar!"

Spurred on by the planted shills, more and more people across the entire beach joined in, shouting "Neo Water Fleet."

A corner of the beach.

Baimu grilled skewers while glancing at the stage; of all the things he had never imagined, the Neo Water Fleet actually recruiting new members through a gathering was one of them—were they that short on people?

The woman leading them with that crimson hair color was also obvious at a glance—Ahizumi from the anime.

Ahizumi's in-game model had been remastered in high definition into a tanned, black-streaked older-sister type, but in the anime she still kept her original-generation appearance.

The special episode, in order to patch this over, specially came up with a name-succession setting, directly updating the previous-generation Ahizumi into the second-generation tanned older-sister Ahizumi—unfortunately she only appeared once and then was gone.

"Eat up! It won't taste good once it's cold!"

Baimu called out to Mawile and Capsakid, then stuffed a grilled Shuckle into the mouth of the busy Chansey, "You stop running around too—make some and eat some at the same time."

"Lu… lucky~"

Chansey was scalded to the point she could barely speak properly, but she couldn't bear to spit it out; the cumin and pepper salt mingled with the juices inside the Shuckle—the wonderful flavor was simply irresistible.

Mawile and Capsakid also each took a skewer and one lowered its head, both eating away.

Baimu casually held a skewer of lotus root between his lips, stood before the fire grilling eggplant, and found time to take out a small bowl to mix up some garlic water—busy as could be.

Although the chef had only given him the stir-fry chapter, barbecue had almost no technical difficulty, and the knowledge needed was also covered in stir-frying, so even though what he made didn't glow, it was still very delicious.

Unfortunately, Aggron had no interest in barbecue; it had been busy enough today—fighting a Gym in the morning, delving into a cave in the afternoon, and on top of that having to learn moves. As the highest-level Pokémon in the team and the one regarded as the trump card, it was practically a model worker.

Baimu could tell that ever since finishing learning Dragon Dive, the big monster could barely hide the fatigue on its face; considering it itself had no real interest in this barbecue stuff, and in the past when he made barbecue it rarely ate, he simply let it rest at ease together with the Galarian Corsola.

And after turning down the third wave of people wanting to buy grilled skewers—

Baimu sat on a small stool, using the neon light to examine that black box.

Liza had said this thing was some kind of data recorder for a mechanical device, which reminded him of a black box on an airplane—except a black box in the Pokémon world didn't come in this blocky shape either.

And something that recorded data like this would usually be painted a bright color for easy recovery…

In the end, why had it appeared in the Rock Tunnel?

If it weren't for the Lucky Scale, Baimu might have simply assumed it was some kind of coincidence, but given this thing's existence, and the fact that it had surfaced together with the Steelix evolution stone—

it was hard to say.

If he wanted to settle the trouble once and for all, he could actually just hand it over to Officer Jenny, but he had a feeling this thing was no ordinary item.

"Forget it. If something really is going to happen, it'll definitely show up right in front of me."

Baimu put the box back in his bag and continued eating the remaining barbecue with his three Pokémon.

In front of the distant bonfire, many people and Pokémon seemed to be dancing.

From time to time, laughter and singing drifted over.

Mawile's eyes sparkled; it seemed eager to go over and join in, but without waiting for Baimu to speak it lowered its head and continued eating barbecue, as if that expression just now had never appeared.

Although its personality had changed somewhat due to its living environment, at its core it still wasn't very keen on this kind of friendly group activity.

Liking dance, liking to show itself off in front of many people, liking the admiring gazes of others—none of that conflicted with not liking group activities.

The limit of what it could tolerate was being together with its Trainer, Aggron, and the others.

"Awkward little thing."

Baimu looked at its delicate, cute face under the lamplight and couldn't help reaching out to pinch its cheek, but the moment he reached over he saw Mawile's eyes go wide as it stared at his hand covered in oil and seasoning, wearing an expression that said "Don't you dare."

"Fine, no touching then."

He sheepishly pulled his hand back; the Capsakid beside him did try to nuzzle over, but was immediately rebuffed with his knee—getting oil and grime on this one's fur meant he'd be the one washing it.

Unlike Mawile, which could wash itself.

After a hearty meal—

Baimu cleaned his hands with a bucket of water, then together with Chansey cleaned up the Capsakid that was covered in sauce from head to toe, extinguished the charcoal, bagged the trash, and once everything was in order said: "Time to go look around—who wants to come?"

"Mo! Nyaa…"

Capsakid had originally intended to respond, but after letting out a yawn drowsiness instantly washed over it.

Mawile caught the mood and yawned along with it.

Both of them looked a little tired.

"Then it's just us two." Baimu turned and met Chansey's eyes; the latter rubbed her little hands together and smiled as she nodded, "Lucky!"

——

The beach bonfire gathering.

Because of the huge number of participants, it stretched for nearly a kilometer from left to right.

The core area was naturally the many stages where the Neo Water Fleet recruited members; they used various images to showcase their ideals, and sent out Pokémon to draw others' attention.