Chapter 395: Dragon Clan Civil War

On a sand dune.

At dusk, when the sun was setting.

Baimu gazed into the distance and at once spotted the Pokémon Center, its enormous Poké Ball sign glowing faintly beside an oasis amid the evening clouds.

"We're here. It's not a mirage."

The soft, warm light through the floor-to-ceiling windows came into view, unconsciously dispelling the heat and fatigue in his heart.

"Finally here! Thank goodness!"

All Baimu and Axew followed behind; hearing those words, they both burst into tears and flung themselves face-first into the sand, only turning their heads slightly to leave themselves room to breathe.

The two of them had walked from afternoon till evening under the blazing sun, and in this special desert environment, it was already an enormous test of stamina.

Yet this fellow had fallen for the mirage twice in a row, making Bai Bai sprint a long stretch for nothing, and upon spotting a Yanmega had gone chasing after it like mad, burning through yet another huge amount of stamina.

Baimu had traveled with her for the better part of half a day, and his desire to travel alone deepened again and again.

Of course.

Having a companion wasn't entirely without its pleasures — having someone to chat with while walking could make one forget a good deal of fatigue, and the feeling was utterly different from chatting casually with Pokémon like Aggron.

In the course of their exchange, both sides revealed quite a bit of personal information—

Strictly speaking, All Baimu talked more.

Like Ash, every time she chatted with someone she couldn't help painting her dream of becoming a 【Dragon Master】.

【By the way, currently the best app for audiobook listening is Wild Fruit Reading — install the latest version at. yeguoyuedu.】

Perhaps she didn't used to have this habit, but after traveling with Ash for so long she'd unconsciously picked it up.

There was nothing wrong with that.

Apart from a few annoying brats and villains, most adults in the world of the Pokémon anime would praise and support others' dreams, so even if she kept it on her lips constantly, no one would laugh at her.

Baimu, who himself possessed goals, certainly wouldn't mock her.

Besides, in the future she would be the Unova Champion, one of the eight Masters of the World Championships, the only powerful Trainer to reach that level without relying on any system.

From every angle, her strength was truly worthy of respect.

But that respect was limited to her strength alone.

"Excuse me."

Baimu strode into the Pokémon Center, followed by a frowning Dragonite carrying its listless Trainer, All Baimu.

The inner sensor door slid open, and a wave of cool air-conditioning rushed to meet them.

Like a spring breeze.

Even All Baimu, who was normally indifferent to air-conditioning, now understood what true comfort felt like.

"So comfy~"

Because the Pokémon Center was built near the desert, the Nurse Joys here were usually particularly idle, and the rare visit from a Trainer made them especially enthusiastic.

Baimu and All Baimu handed over their Pokémon, sat down on the sofa in the very center of the lobby to rest, and picked up the topic they hadn't finished earlier—

How to learn 【Dragon Heart】.

"So the key is to understand and feel the hearts of Dragon-type Pokémon, to understand what they're thinking."

"Exactly!"

"But isn't that a kind of catch-22? I want to use Dragon Heart to understand and feel the hearts of Dragon-type Pokémon, but I have to understand and feel their hearts first?"

"Uh… it is kind of a catch-22… ah! I don't really get the principles behind it either!"

"Sorry to put you on the spot."

He apologized to All Baimu, who was so frustrated she was clutching her head.

It was an innate talent to begin with — forcing a principle and logic out of it for him to learn was absurd; it would be a miracle if she could even come up with anything, and her cooperation was already more than decent.

But Baimu was genuinely very interested in Dragon Heart.

After all, using the clue, he would most likely be welcoming a Dragon-type pseudo-legendary that was no longer young and already at a fairly high level.

With Dragon Heart, he could quickly let that Dragon-type Pokémon understand his feelings, and let him understand those Dragon-type Pokémon's feelings — a mutually beneficial exchange for all.

Otherwise, raising a fully-grown pseudo-legendary that was already developed in every respect was no less difficult than raising one from scratch.

Unfortunately, learning Dragon Heart might be even harder!

Just as Baimu was feeling regretful, All Baimu beside him suddenly said: "Let's have a battle! We can understand Dragon-type Pokémon through battling!"

"Huh?"

He froze for a moment.

"A battle!"

All Baimu, thinking he hadn't heard clearly, repeated it. "During a battle, the Pokémon and the Trainer are one — don't you think that's when you can best see what your Pokémon are thinking?"

"Well…"

Baimu somehow found that rather reasonable.

But if they wanted to battle, it was probably not going to happen tonight — All Baimu's Pokémon had been exhausted all day, and she herself was so tired she couldn't get up, both in desperate need of proper rest to recover.

The two agreed to battle the next morning.

Night.

The temperature outside plummeted.

Too lazy to cook, Baimu mooched a meal at the Pokémon Center cafeteria; Nurse Joy's cooking was good, and he ate quite happily.

Ever since he had money, he rarely stayed at Pokémon Centers anymore, and mooching meals at the cafeteria was even rarer — normally he either cooked for himself or ate out, so suddenly doing this felt rather enjoyable.

Compared with his extravagant self, All Baimu, who hailed from the Village of Dragons and was the future inheritor of the dual Dragon-type Gym, was far more frugal.

If there was a Pokémon Center, she stayed at the Pokémon Center; if not, she'd find a lush big tree, climb up, and lie on the trunk as her bed — for all the world like a wild animal.

Because of this, she had been mistaken for a wild Pokémon and had Poké Balls thrown at her by other Trainers on many occasions.

She never learned her lesson either — knocked down again and again, yet she kept climbing back up the tree, and every now and then she'd be chased off by Officer Jenny or some other manager.

Asked why, she answered that the tree was comfortable and free.

This one even tried to climb the shrubs of the oasis outside, but the moment her front paw stepped out, her hind paw was frozen back in — shivering and rubbing her arms the whole way.

Once the desert wind blew at night, it could freeze a person to the point of losing body heat.

And Baimu, recalling Alice's childhood, could more or less understand the latter's way of thinking — having grown up alongside wild Pokémon, she'd formed habits in every respect.

By the time it came to feeding the Pokémon, the two sides had practically "seen each other in the nude."

Alice was utterly astonished by Pokémon like Aggron.

"You really can't tell from your team that you're a Dragon Tamer!"

During their earlier small talk, Baimu had told her that he barely counted as a Star of the Meteor Falls, a not-particularly-official Dragon Tamer.

At first she hadn't understood what "not particularly official" meant, but now, seeing Aggron and the others, she got it — turned out a Dragon Tamer's team had only one Dragon-type Pokémon in it.

Counting Milotic, which belonged to the Dragon Egg Group, as half a one.

"You're not much better than me."

Baimu's gaze swept over Dragonite and Emolga, and finally settled on a bird-beast creature with iridescent plumage and a serpent-like head — looking both fierce and bizarre—

Archeops, the Ancient Bird Pokémon, whose Ability 【Defeatist】 is one of the most useless Abilities around.

He hadn't expected Alice's sixth Pokémon to be it.

Didn't she have one in the games?

"This little one was a fossil I picked up from a street stall and revived — it took quite a lot of trouble back then!" Seeing how interested he seemed in Archeops, Alice shared a little story.

Basically the standard plot: lucked into a fossil, revived it with someone else's help, got targeted by a poaching gang and lost it by accident, then tracked it down again thanks to Gible's sensing ability.

The bit about winning the little Archen's trust by getting bitten also featured.

No matter how ferocious a Pokémon, once it sinks its teeth into a person, it soon falls to their gaze and words — the gentle method is always the trump card for winning over the anime-version Pokémon.

As for the bunch in the game *Legends Arceus*… they'd be doing you a favor if they only beat you into amnesia.

"By the way, does your Archeops know Double-Edge?"

Baimu asked suddenly.

An Aggron that knows Double-Edge was just too hard to find, so much so that the big monster, despite its Ability Rock Head, still hadn't learned this Rock-type ultimate move to this day.

Rock Blast was certainly usable enough, and after Mega Evolution its Ability changed to Filter, and it lost its Rock typing anyway.

But not knowing Double-Edge always felt like something was missing. Besides, even though it was an egg move, maybe Aggron could learn it from Archeops?

Alice could only shake her head.

"What a shame."

Baimu patted Aggron's arm in regret.

The latter didn't mind, though — even without the so-called Double-Edge, its strength would not be shaken.

——

The next day.

Early morning.

Full of energy, Alice came running to knock on the door.

"Good morning! Baimu! Wake up! Baimu!"

Though the two were traveling together, they didn't share a room like she had with Ash back then — not to mention whether Alice minded, Baimu would definitely be the first to refuse.

"Happy~"

Chansey, pushing a cleaning cart, tugged at her hem and pointed outside.

"Huh? He's already gone out?"

Alice easily understood what Chansey meant, nimbly dashed downstairs and out of the Pokémon Center, and there, by the oasis pool in the distance, caught sight of Baimu doing his morning exercises.

In the sparkling pool, a differently-colored Milotic twisted and turned its body; sunlight lit up its golden scales and tail fin, radiant and dazzling.

She couldn't help spacing out for a moment.

"So pretty…"

"Indeed."

A voice sounded right by her ear, giving her a fright.

Only then did Alice realize that Baimu, in the middle of his morning routine, had somehow already come to stand beside her.

Baimu said with deep feeling, "Even as its Trainer, I'm still often captivated by it. Back when I only watched videos of other people's Milotic online, I'd just think they looked nice, then scroll past without a second thought."

"Why?"

"Why… probably because of the heart."

He smiled, "Those Milotic back then belonged to other people; now that there's one among my own partners, the feeling is completely different, and the sensation is completely different too. Another possibility is that videos only engage sight and hearing, and are also limited by pixels and resolution — they don't feel as real as the real thing."

Alice fell into thought.

In a flash she said, as if waking from a dream, "Wait! A battle! Let's have a battle! We agreed yesterday!"

"Battle on an empty stomach?"

"Eating after the battle works just as well!"

Alice said impatiently, clearly having looked forward to this battle for a long time.

Looking at her expression, Baimu couldn't tell for the moment whether she wanted him to learn Dragon Heart, or simply wanted to challenge him as a Dragon Tamer.

However.

"Alright!"

He nodded, "Then how do we fight? One-on-one? Three-on-three?"

"Three-on-three, of course! I'll send out all my Dragon-type Pokémon!" Alice openly declared her choice.

Seeing this, All Baimu looked at the Milotic in the pool and said, "In that case, I'll use the three most dragon-like Pokémon in my team."

"Good!"

The two arrived at the battle field behind the Pokémon Center.

Although the place looked rarely used, Nurse Chansey still kept it very clean; only a thin layer of wind-blown grit covered the ground.

Since there was no drone referee, and Miss Qiao Yin and Chansey were also busy, they had to set their own rules.

"Does the order of attacking and releasing Pokémon matter?"

All Baimu asked.

Iris, standing at the opposing trainer's box, answered loudly, "Release them together! Attack together!"

"Okay."

He took out a Poké Ball and held it up in the sunlight. "Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Begin!"

As All Baimu's voice fell, two Poké Balls flew up and burst open with two pops.

Bai Guang wavered.

Axew and the shiny Milotic landed on opposite sides of the field.

"Ono!"

"Milo~"

The morning sun wasn't especially fierce, so it had little effect on the Water-type shiny Milotic, which was why All Baimu chose it as his lead Pokémon.

But he was a little surprised that Iris had chosen to lead with Axew.

What was its Ability again?

Sheer Force? Unnerve?

If it was the former, things would get interesting — a male Axew facing a female Milotic would inevitably have its move power reduced... but it was most likely Sheer Force.

"Dragon Dance!"

"Charge in! Haze!"

Both trainers gave their orders.

Axew performed a fierce war dance on the spot, an orange-red glow lighting up across its body.

Unexpectedly, the Milotic surging forward suddenly spewed out a smoke-cloud-thick Haze, which in an instant covered most of the field, causing the just-lit orange-red rising light to swiftly turn into a pale-blue descending light.

Iris froze for a moment, then keenly noticed an icy-blue light flickering within the Haze.

"Dodge to the side, quick!"

She shouted.

The next instant.

"Blizzard!"

A visible icy-blue cold current mixed with milky-white snowflakes suddenly dispersed the Haze and froze a good portion of the field's ground into icy chunks.

And its source was unmistakably the shiny Milotic's mouth and its dazzling-gold fan-shaped tail fin — the former spewing cold breath, the latter fanning rapidly to intensify the Blizzard's power and range.

"Ee!"

Iris, who had felt the Blizzard's aftershock, hugged her arms and shivered.

Fortunately, thanks to her timely command, the Axew at the edge of the field had successfully dodged the Milotic's attack and stared in horror at the frozen ground nearby.

An opponent that knew Ice-type moves.

The type it was worst at dealing with.

But a move of such great power and range inevitably left an opening when finished — or rather, a recovery animation — which led Iris to choose a hard charge.

"Axew, use Dragon Claw!"

"Ono!"

Axew, shouting to bolster its own courage, charged forward like a suicide attack, closing in on the Milotic that had just finished exhaling, and raised a pair of jade-green claws to slash down viciously.

Bang bang!

The Dragon Claw landed on the Milotic's body, bursting into two puffs of smoke, and caused the latter to show a slightly pained expression.

But before Axew could retreat, a brilliant-gold tail, far faster than it, coiled around it.

Whoosh!

Even if it couldn't use moves, that didn't mean the Milotic's body couldn't move — and for a "snake," binding an opponent was basic technique!

"Ono!?"

Axew was greatly alarmed, and Iris also showed a shocked expression. "Axew, break free, quick!"

"Hypnosis!"

All Baimu didn't give them that chance.

The Milotic's gem-like pale-blue eyes lit up with a captivating radiance, countless translucent pink-purple rings spreading forward, and Axew's eyelids rapidly grew heavy.

In an instant.

It actually lowered its head and fell fast asleep!