Chapter 371

The first day the odd-colored Uglyfish climbed the waterfall, its performance wasn't good.

But as Baimu had always said, performance can improve—the rising rank is proof; what matters is the odd-colored Uglyfish's will to climb.

To be honest.

If his own water skills weren't so poor, he'd have wanted to lead by example and climb the waterfall with it—

Okay, just joking; that would only add psychological burden to the odd-colored Uglyfish.

And once he understood this creature's inner journey, he was certain his choice of the Dragon's Gate Waterfall as the object for the odd-colored Uglyfish to build confidence was utterly correct.

"You've worked hard—it's my responsibility."

Under the moonlight, Baimu sat on the veranda in his pajamas, smiling as he thanked the Bisharp.

"Gurrr~"

Bisharp shook its head; it hadn't done much—just spoken two words to the odd-colored Uglyfish.

Even if it truly helped the odd-colored Uglyfish, that was only natural. Even without its Ace status, it was still a companion and teammate to the odd-colored Uglyfish; ignoring its condition would be the real problem.

"So thoughtful, Ace."

Baimu leaned against Bisharp with a sigh; the summer night in Hoenn wasn't especially hot, but the cool touch of its black hide was deeply comforting.

Faintly, he could still feel its heartbeat.

Matching his own in rhythm, thump-thump, softly echoing.

Bisharp seemed to notice too, slowing its previously heavy and coarse breathing, savoring the quiet intimacy of embracing its trainer in the still night.

In this moment.

Their spirits hovered between heartbeats, yet something deeper entwined them, as if merging into one.

But neither was aware of it.

They simply wished to draw closer, to stay longer.

The Dragon Elder, who had come over out of concern to check on them, stopped far away.

"..."

After a while.

A smile appeared on her face; she slipped away silently.

At first, she'd worried Baimu wouldn't adjust, thinking a chat might help him feel more connected to the Meteor People.

But now, the Dragon Elder knew she'd overthought it—only someone deeply adapted could enter such a resonance state with their Pokémon.

Indeed, no matter his origins or upbringing, a child like Baimu could never hide the light within him.

"An excellent Dragon Tamer… no, Trainer—may you bravely press forward. May the Dragon God watch over you."

She whispered softly.

Far, far away, high above the sky, where it freely soared and circled in search of meteorites from beyond, Latios glanced downward once.

Then it turned its gaze away and continued flying, as if nothing had happened.

Soon, many meteorites would fall.

Hope it eats well.

On the ground.

Baimu regretfully couldn't lean against Bisharp for long.

Because Gyarados had woken several times, sensing its trainer wasn't in bed, and groaned as it came searching.

This jolted Baimu fully awake from his half-sleep state; together with Bisharp, they helplessly watched Gyarados pounce before them.

"Go back to sleep—I'm waiting for Lei Gong. Be good."

He patted Gyarados's three heads, half-coaxing, half-pushing it away.

Pokémon being clingy is heartwarming, but constant clinging isn't acceptable; he must give other Pokémon space to approach him, and he himself needs that opportunity too.

"Ssh…"

Haxorus looked pitifully at its trainer, so dejected its deep purple neck fur, blooming like flowers, hung limp.

Yet Baimu kept a serious expression and whispered, "Go to sleep!"

It floated sluggishly back to the bedroom, hovering above the bed like a balloon, eyes closed.

The Galarian Sunflora on the nightstand, its bright red eyes flickered briefly then vanished, hiding inside its not-so-hard shell, smirking—it loved seeing this dumb dragon get scolded.

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Open-air veranda.

Baimu couldn't help sighing, turning to ask Bisharp, "Am I spoiling Gyarados too much?"

Though he always wanted to treat everyone equally, humans aren't machines, and the simulator doesn't track how long he spends with each Pokémon, inevitably leading to "favoritism."

If other Pokémon don't care, fine—but if any feel neglected, that means Baimu has failed.

Unless he wanted to do what Sho did: catch them and dump them back in Huang Tie Town, handing them over to N, who'd promised to care for them and now indeed looks after Steelix.

But even Steelix inevitably comes to him every two days—for checkups, battles, physicals.

Clearly, that approach doesn't suit him.

If so, Baimu must become a master of time management.

"Gurrr."

Bisharp softly comforted him, yet as he looked touched, it quietly raised one tiny claw, eyes crinkling with teasing amusement, "Hrr~"

It really is a little.

"You little rascal," Baimu laughed.

Since passing through the difficult "teenage" phase and no longer clinging to territory, Bisharp's personality had grown increasingly mature, and like Alolan Vileplume, it had shifted from recipient to giver.

It listens to its trainer's confessions, shares his burdens, like a child gradually maturing.

Yet this change did not create any distance between Baimu and Bisharp; instead, it drew them closer on every level.

Baimu felt that if a Key Stone were placed before him now, he could complete Bisharp's Mega Evolution with perfect ease.

Too bad.

Though he was in the heart of the Hoenn region, the origin of Mega Evolution, he could not obtain a Key Stone for the time being.

What kind of trial would Miss Xijiana set for him?

He couldn't help but imagine it.

"Ding!"

His phone beside him emitted a soft chime.

Baimu turned his head and saw it was already 3 a. m. "Looks like our dear Lei Gong won't be coming today… Do you think it went to Autumn Leaf Village?"

"Grrr~"

Bisharp gave no answer—it had no idea what the legendary Pokémon thought, but gently urged its trainer to go to sleep.

Though youth could endure sleepless nights, tomorrow's energy would still be different.

"Don't stay up."

Baimu rose and patted its thick horns. Bisharp was a Pokémon whose horns grew longer with age, yet his giant beast was still young, despite having fought countless battles.

He returned to bed.

He silently fell asleep.

——

The next day.

Baimu awoke and glanced beside the bed—just in time to see Lei Gong walking out.

"You came back and I didn't even notice!"

"Roar~"

Lei Gong glanced at him, as if to say, You've missed plenty of things before.

Recalling how it had almost gone to Autumn Leaf Village last night, it felt a twinge of irritation—thankfully, it had remembered Baimu's words that he might not return, and came to check, or else it would have made the trip for nothing.

But this place.

Lei Gong sensed strange fluctuations in the air, its gaze inevitably drawn to the Dragon Shrine nearby.

Had it not been for someone here, it would never have come to such a heavily marked location—not only to avoid unwanted trouble, but because staying here made it deeply uncomfortable.

But since it had come, it no longer cared.

"Don't rush off—have breakfast first."

Baimu quickly got up, washed his face, and prepared breakfast with Happiny; last night he had thanked the old woman who brought the food and declined further offers.

Surely she won't come this morning?

Even if she does, it doesn't matter.

These extreme Dragon fanatics would only get excited upon seeing a Dragon-type Legendary Pokémon.

Perhaps because he woke too early, the morning sun had just risen, slightly yellowed, and the village of Meteor was silent—no cries from Dragon Pokémon could be heard.

Baimu watched the Pokémon eating, noticing Garchomp's head buried in its food, half-asleep—he slapped its head. "I told you not to stay up last night!"

"Saaang!"

Garchomp jolted awake, its three heads swiveling like surveillance cameras to scan the attacker—then, seeing its trainer glaring, it instinctively licked off the food on its face.

Realizing what had happened, it sheepishly pulled its heads back.

Normally, Garchomp wouldn't be this tired in the morning—it was mainly due to yesterday's marathon battles and the exhausting direct clash with Sharpedo.

Besides, it was still in the adaptation phase of its new body.

Only three or four days since its evolution.

"You little thing…"

Baimu pinched Garchomp's cheek hard.

Porygon finished breakfast and silently thanked its trainer's hard work; its peripheral vision caught sight of Galarian Sunflora and it tilted its head. "Pari?"

Why do you seem so cheerful?

"Saa…"

Galarian Sunflora firmly denied Porygon's insinuation that it was gloating.

'I didn't! I didn't! Don't make things up!'

Porygon, with no such intention, withdrew its gaze—if its visual function wasn't malfunctioning, Galarian Sunflora's normally drooping mouth corners were indeed lifted.

Strange.

But it didn't dwell on it—companions being in good spirits was normal.

Breakfast ended.

Galarian Sunflora had planned to return to bed and sleep, but caught Baimu's gaze. "It's your turn today—'on duty.'"

"..."

Galarian Sunflora's good mood vanished instantly.

Working as a coral is hard.

It floated sluggishly onto Baimu's shoulder, hoping today wouldn't require its appearance.

Seeing Galarian Sunflora seemed reluctant, Garchomp stepped forward eagerly, fawningly asking: "Saaang?"

Shall I take your place?

"..."

Galarian Sunflora suddenly regained its energy and turned its head away outright.

The three-headed dragon flew away regretfully.

After watching the interaction between the two, Baimu took the Galarian Sunflora off his shoulder, "Why do I get the feeling you have a grudge against the three-headed dragon?"

"…"

The Galarian Sunflora stared at him with its crimson eyes, as if to say: I have a huge grudge.

"Why… because it bites you every morning?"

Baimu pondered for a long while, realizing their daily interaction probably only consisted of that morning bite—most of the time, the Galarian Sunflora slept through the entire day.

Galarian Sunflora: "!"

"Hey, what's with that shocked expression?" He tugged at his lips, looking helplessly at the once-submarine rock.

He pats the Galarian Sunflora every day and is hypersensitive to the smell of the three-headed dragon's drool—how could he not notice?

He just never gave it special attention.

Because in his fixed impression of the Galarian Sunflora, this thing always fought back when attacked—it never took losses on this front.

Besides, among Pokémon habits, roughhousing does help strengthen bonds.

Now it seems…

"I never thought you'd be bothered by this. Shouldn't you just ignore it?" Baimu wondered why the Galarian Sunflora cared about this at all.

Given its temperament, it was barely a step away from the state of "unmoved by external gain or personal loss."

It shouldn't care about such a trivial thing at all.

Upon hearing this, the Galarian Sunflora's gaze turned mournful again—perhaps it once was that way, but after staying so long beside its trainer, habits slowly changed.

Its inner state was no longer stable.

It's all your fault!

"Alright, alright, I'll scold the three-headed dragon a bit and tell it to stop bothering you from now on." Baimu patted the Galarian Sunflora's increasingly smooth skull.

He turned and found the three-headed dragon, sternly reprimanding it.

The three-headed dragon stared blankly with all three faces, then looked at the Galarian Sunflora in disbelief, "Sarrr!"

Ah! You tattled!

"Sar!"

The Galarian Sunflora solemnly corrected its wording—it was the tattle that came to it; it merely nodded slightly in cooperation.

How could that count as tattling?

No slander allowed!

"Don't zone out—I'm warning you once: from now on, no biting the Galarian Sunflora." Baimu grabbed the middle head's cheek and pulled hard to stretch the skin.

"Sarrr—"

The three-headed dragon winced, lifting its left and right heads and nodding vigorously.

Baimu nodded in satisfaction, "Good cooperation. What do you think?" He turned to the Galarian Sunflora.

The latter chose to stay silent, then began trembling slightly.

Clearly, it was very pleased.

So he let the not-so-pitiful three-headed dragon go.

"Sarrr…"

The three-headed dragon sadly licked its own face with its other two heads, feeling that though its strength had grown since evolving, its trainer was becoming less accommodating.

Doesn't being big mean you're still a baby?

Nearby.

Many "adult" Pokémon watched this farce—some disdainful, some smirking, some thoughtful… some rising to leave.

Seeing Lei Gong preparing to leave, Baimu hurriedly asked, "Will Team Rocket come today?"

Lei Gong gave him a look that said: How would I know?

"…Mainly because I notified so many people—if they show up a week or a month from now, I'll be embarrassed." He spoke awkwardly.

As the source of the information, if Lei Gong didn't give him a sedative shot, he felt uneasy.

After all, it's always easier to be the thief for a thousand days than to guard against one for a thousand days. The Meteor People are now on high alert, and Champion Dawu seems prepared too—but if time drags on, nothing's certain.

"Roar…"

Lei Gong gazed at him, then after several seconds, shook his head.

If he knew the exact time, why would he still be lurking here?

"Alright."

Baimu, realizing he wouldn't get an answer from Lei Gong, gave up and watched it run off.

In truth, he was still curious about its intelligence source—did Lei Gong have a spy in Team Rocket? A human spy? A Pokémon spy?

An unsolved mystery.

He sighed silently, then turned to the group of Pokémon: "Get ready—we should start training."

Not long after.

Just as Baimu was about to begin training, Renya and others came to find him.

"Baimu! Did you see it? Lei Gong just ran off in your direction!"

"The legendary Pokémon Lei Gong!"

"With such long fangs, roaring as it ran—ao wu ao wu!"

They chattered excitedly, faces alight with the thrill of witnessing something extraordinary.

When Baimu shook his head.

They all looked disappointed, "Didn't you see it? That's such a shame! Lei Gong is a Pokémon from the Johto region—no one knows why it came here."

"Indeed, it's never been heard that Lei Gong would come to Fengyuan."

"By the way, did it go to the Dragon Shrine?"

"Go take a look! If it disturbs the elders and ancestors, it won't be good!"

A group hurriedly departed.

"So full of energy."

Baimu clicked his tongue.

As sunlight illuminated the land, Meteor Village suddenly came alive, with shouts and roars echoing everywhere.

By the time the sun rose high.

The dragons set out from their homes, flying toward Meteor Falls.

These adult Dragon-type Pokémon frequently traveled between Meteor Village and the Dragon Nest, playing freely and carefree, greatly enviable.

In comparison, the young Dragon Tamers were far from relaxed or happy.

Because Meteor Village housed a cultural school, specifically established for the idle young Dragon Tamers, with the mission of turning them into cultured individuals.

The young Dragon Tamers wailed in despair, utterly lacking the joy that Ash had when attending school in Alola.

Especially when passing by Baimu.

Seeing him happily raising various Pokémon, their suppressed wails grew louder.

The short walk to school was as arduous as a pilgrimage to the Western Heavens.

Baimu silently mourned for them.

Basic education was already widely popularized in mainstream regions.

Those wishing to become Trainers could attend Trainer School; those wanting a normal education could go to regular middle and high schools, and even many who returned from travels enrolled.

Earlier in Green Meadow Town, Baimu had asked Manchong why, if she felt lost about the future, she didn't go to school.

She replied she was somewhat afraid of interacting with peers.

She simply couldn't handle places like schools.

Of course.

Now, if Baimu were to go to school himself, he certainly couldn't handle it either, so when a Meteor Villager elder suggested he visit the school, he immediately refused, citing his participation in the Grand Festival.

In truth, he was very busy.

Leaving aside the most basic training and learning moves.

On one hand, he needed to train Happiny and Gulpin into a singing-and-dancing performance duo; on the other, he continued taking the Shiny Uglyfish to challenge Longmen Falls.

Happiny's vocal qualities were certainly no match for Chansey, a Pokémon born for singing.

But they weren't bad either.

What Baimu needed to cultivate was its sense of rhythm; Gulpin, meanwhile, needed to coordinate its dance to the beat... honestly, this reminded him of Sinnoh's Coordinator—Minstrel Shangzhi.

This person seemed to be an expert in combining melody and dance.

Thinking of this,

he tried having Poliwhirl collect competition records related to Shangzhi, drawing new inspiration from his Grand Festival performances, which would also help Happiny understand its role.

Honestly, Happiny had very little understanding of elegance and variation.

Perhaps its talent had all been invested in caring for and healing others; its inability to excel in everything fully revealed that Pokémon, too, had limits.

"No big problem."

After watching the first Shangzhi competition video, Baimu noticed he excelled at using Soundwhistle to generate colorful musical notes with 【Sing】.

Creating various variations based on these notes.

"So your first task, besides rhythm, is to weaken the hypnotic effect of singing and increase the number of notes," he told Happiny, "and we should have plenty of ready teachers."

"Happy?"

Happiny tilted its head in confusion.

But soon it understood what the Trainer meant—

Baimu had invited a group of natural "singers" from a Meteor Villager's home specializing in Togekiss. "Please teach my Happiny to sing."

"Chiruu?"

"Chiruu~ Chiruu~"

The Togekiss chirped in confusion or chatter; it took him considerable effort to make them understand their duty, but they enthusiastically agreed, then solemnly surrounded Happiny.

"Chiruu!"

Today's student is you, right?

One Togekiss used its cottony wings to adjust its nonexistent glasses—a habit it learned from school teachers.

Happiny looked at it, a flicker of dread crossing its face.

"Happy..."

"Chiruu! Chiruu!"

Its cries for help were drowned out by the Togekiss.

Gulpin watched Happiny's miserable ordeal and instinctively retreated toward the Trainer, but halfway there, it suddenly remembered the culprit was the Trainer.

It retreated two more steps sideways.

Too bad Baimu still didn't let it off, "What are you standing there for? Doesn't a dancer need to master rhythm? You're going too!"

"Kichido..."

"Are you going to dance by yourself?"

"Kichido!"

Gulpin shot him a resentful glance, reluctantly moving closer—then suddenly turned and solemnly cried: "Kichido!"

Can trainers really stay out of it?

Let's go together!

It swiftly grabbed All Baimu's arm, and before the latter could react at all, they charged together into the flock of Swablu, drowned in white fluffy feathers.

That morning, the Cotton Birds successfully harvested three earnest but clumsy students.

And while the Contest group was in full swing—

Bastiodon and the shiny Feebas arrived at a small river near Meteor Village; they planned to practice the fish-leaping-over-the-dragon-gate routine here.

Simply put—

The former manipulates the water flow to form a wave, and the latter takes the chance to leap over it. Two steps.

The method was thought up by All Baimu. Since Bastiodon had insisted on helping the shiny Feebas, he put some thought into coming up with this substitute method.

The two couldn't wait to give it a try.

"Guujou!"

Bastiodon stood at the upstream end of the river and let out a great roar, while the shiny Feebas, positioned downstream, blew a big bubble to show it was ready.

Peng!

The former immediately struck the water's surface with its claws, sending rolling waves surging toward the shiny Feebas.

Because the first wave was tentative, the latter leapt over it with great ease.

"Guujou?"

Bastiodon hurriedly asked whether it felt like leaping a waterfall.

The shiny Feebas thought for a moment and said it didn't really feel the same.

"Jouu…"

The big monster fell into thought.

The practice method the trainer came up with was surely correct; the problem most likely lay with its own execution.

Mm.

It must be that it wasn't putting in enough force.

Bastiodon signaled it would try again. Once Feebas was ready, it slightly raised its claws and channeled its energy, watching as countless water vapors condensed into a glowing blue water orb, which it instantly fired at the river!

Dong!

The river gave a muffled sound as if struck by a heavy blow; a massive wave immediately rose up and crashed toward the shiny Feebas!

That's it!

The shiny Feebas' eyes lit up slightly. When the wave drew near, it indeed carried a few hints of a waterfall's might. Though there was still a considerable gap, as a training method it was already enough!

"Bo!"

It suddenly flicked its tail and leapt, its small body tracing an arc through the air, its rather shabby purple scales reflecting the sunlight's brilliance, and then—

It was washed away by the spray.

"Guujou!?"

Bastiodon was startled, then flustered and at a loss for what to do,

Fortunately, the shiny Feebas soon swam back up from the bottom and blew a big bubble to show it was fine.

This let the big monster heave a sigh of relief.

"Guujou?"

"Bo!"

When asked whether to keep the previous intensity, the shiny Feebas gave an affirmative answer.

Just as the trainer said—break through layer by layer.

It would surely gain something!

"Bo!"

The shiny Feebas swung its tail, exposing its body fully to the sunlight, and silently sang a hymn of defiance against fate.