Chapter 438: Bloodline Suppression

While the two were talking.

The TV station's director walked up with a face full of smiles.

"The filming was a great success! Your battle left me in absolute awe. Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Naqi — once we wrap up, the programme will be ready for editing in no time!"

"I'm glad you're satisfied. You worked hard."

Naqi nodded, then went around thanking the rest of the staff on the top floor one by one.

The staff all returned smiles in kind.

Baimu silently placed his badge into a dedicated box and showed it to the Bibarel beside him; the latter's eyes lit up.

The director suddenly spoke up:

"Mr. Baimu, we must also thank you for allowing us to film this time. We are truly grateful."

"It's not that serious — I just didn't want to disrupt the schedule."

He replied offhandedly, then noticed several TV station staff crowding around, nervously yet hopefully asking for his autograph on their notebooks or clothes — and ideally a paw print from Bibarel too.

Such small requests he wouldn't refuse, but Bibarel refused to give a paw print, and instead enthusiastically snatched the pen from Baimu, held it in a three-year-old's grip, thought for a moment, and scribbled its name like a doodle.

Without a doubt, this was the small result of its recent initial literacy lessons with Porygon-Z's help.

Back in literacy class, Baimu had also started by learning to write his own name and the pronunciation notes beside it.

Those few staff members were delighted.

"Bibarel's personal signature!"

"Amazing!"

"Thank you so much! I'll treasure it for the rest of my life!"

The mixed group of men and women bowed repeatedly in thanks.

"Chiyu~"

Bibarel proudly put its hands on its hips.

After learning to write, the whole Pokémon seems more confident!

The director watched the scene with a smile, pulled a business card from his pocket, and said, "This is my card — I hope you'll take it. Perhaps we'll have the chance to work together in the future. Please look after me."

Baimu reached out and took it—

【Hoenn TV Station, First Production Bureau, Producer — Takemura】

"The feeling's mutual. Please look after me too, Mr. Takemura." He had no particular prejudice against TV station people, and considering that once he became famous there really might be opportunities to collaborate, he was polite about it.

Seeing Baimu accept the card and be so friendly, Director Takemura's smile immediately became much more sincere.

The two chatted briefly, mostly about the battle just now. Director Takemura regretfully mentioned that he couldn't give too much footage of the fight in Naqi's personal interview.

After all, Naqi didn't have many highlight moments — carefully counted, there were only a few forced switches and blocks of lethal moves, but in the end she still got beaten pretty badly.

A TV station can't put someone else's highlight moments in a personal interview, right? They're not stupid.

So the director's original idea of using Baimu's fame to boost ratings had fallen through.

"In recent years, with the internet developing, far fewer people watch TV. Our station is finding things harder and harder." Takemura said with a complaining tone, and mentioned that in the past the station would pick one or two trainers almost every week for personal interviews.

From Champions and Elite Four members to Gym Leaders and tournament winners, as well as powerful civilian trainers.

Nowadays only the Elite Four and Gym Leaders' personal interviews get any ratings; ordinary trainers' interviews hardly anyone wants to watch, and even Gym Leaders without much fame get poor ratings.

So the segment had been adjusted from weekly to monthly, and recently there was even talk of changing it to quarterly.

Quarterly?

With such a long cycle, would anyone really watch?

Baimu couldn't help but feel doubtful, and upon hearing that Naqi had done a personal interview three years ago and this one was a re-edition, he already had no expectations for the programme at all.

A show that's already started rehashing old material is doomed to flop.

As they chatted, Takemura suddenly changed his tone and said that if Baimu shone brilliantly in the upcoming Grand Festival or the Battle Frontier, the TV station might try to launch a personal feature on him.

"Baimu-kun's popularity lately is incredible — the Carp Leaps Over the Dragon Gate performance at the Akiba Tournament finals made a huge splash. Everyone in our station knows you."

"Director Takemura, you're exaggerating…"

"Not at all, not even a little." Takemura shook his head quickly. "You'll become a big name sooner or later — a personal interview is only a matter of time. When that day comes, I hope Baimu-kun will be generous with his guidance."

To be honest.

Baimu had no real interest in TV station interviews.

But he knew that Yamabushi, far away in Orre, would definitely egg him on to participate. Figuring he couldn't avoid it anyway, he took the initiative to learn the specifics.

They didn't chat for long.

Considering the occasion wasn't suitable for a long conversation — Naqi still had other challengers to receive, and the director still needed to gather enough material from the upcoming battles.

Baimu got a rough understanding of the interview production process, then took his leave.

He went down the long staircase.

Halfway down, Shota's shout came from behind.

"Wait! Baimu! Wait for me!"

He turned his head in confusion and asked, "What's up?"

Shota ran up quickly and stopped beside him, slightly out of breath, then rubbed the back of his head with some hesitation, looking around. "Um…"

Baimu and Bibarel exchanged a glance, neither speaking, just quietly waiting for the kid to speak up.

The old Chansey used to be far more hesitant than this — it would take a whole minute to get a simple sentence out. Their patience had long since been trained.

"If I — if I set out on a journey, could I become as strong as you?" Shota finally said, as if gathering all his courage.

After watching the Gym battle just now, he couldn't help imagining whether, if he had chosen to travel like the former instead of staying at the Gym as an apprentice, he might have become just as strong.

【A book-friend I've known for ten years recommended this reading app to me — the source-switching app! Damn, it's really useful. I use it for reading aloud while driving or before bed to kill time. You can download it here: huanyuanapp.】

Faced with this question, Baimu didn't hesitate much, shook his head, and answered honestly: "I don't know."

"... Eh?"

Shota was taken aback for a moment.

He had imagined many possible answers the other might give—mockery or encouragement—but... "I don't know"?

"Everyone's circumstances are different, and I'm no prophet—how could I possibly presume your future achievements?" Baimu paused, then asked, "Do you want to go traveling?"

"... Mm."

Shota nodded hesitantly.

It wasn't his first day entertaining similar thoughts; he just couldn't bring himself to give up his work at the Gym, since it had taken him so much effort to land.

Add to that the fact that he had never once left Lumiose City, so the idea of going traveling left him quite lost—and he had kept it bottled up all this time.

Baimu was a little surprised.

He had assumed Shota was the type of carefree, hot-blooded youth like Satoshi, and hadn't expected such complicated inner turmoil.

If it were Satoshi, he'd probably pick "travel" with his eyes closed, right?

"Just do what you think is right."

He patted the other on the shoulder. "No need to overthink it."

"The right thing..."

Shota muttered to himself, head lowered; when he came back to his senses, the latter had already vanished, taking Chingling with him.

—

Coming out of the Pokémon Center.

Baimu headed straight for Kirlia's secret base.

To be honest, the Gym battle with Norma had been far easier than he'd imagined—Chansey and the others had barely taken any damage—

In fact, they hadn't even been hit that many times.

Still, through this battle he had also spotted quite a few areas that needed work.

For example, Milotic's move pool wasn't deep enough, and Chingling's output—even factoring in Frustration and Strength—was rather limited; Chansey, on the other hand, was close to its final form.

【Earthquake】had also patched up its shortcomings in close combat...

But there were still plenty of moves it could learn.

"Take it step by step. Debts don't crush you when they're piled high." Baimu thought of the Dragapult that still resisted him, and his heart settled at once.

The things he had to do were already piling up into a small mountain.

There was no rushing it.

In the blink of an eye, he arrived at Kirlia's secret base. Unexpectedly, the fellow seemed to have picked up two more "students" and was using his clumsy teaching skills to convey the method of learning Secret Power.

"Finished the battle?"

Kirlia's eyes lit up slightly when he saw him.

"Mm... if you're busy, I can come find you again tomorrow." Baimu glanced at those long-suffering suckers and their Pokémon, and realized he wasn't the only one who'd figured out this guy's teaching was unreliable.

"Come join us! It's no trouble!"

Kirlia waved generously. "You can use the review too."

Review my ass!

He simply got straight to the point—asking about the setup of a secret base. Given Porygon2's special nature, learning Secret Power wouldn't take more than a few days.

Learning the content ahead of time would help save time.

Kirlia, upon hearing this, glanced at the other two with some difficulty. Clumsy teaching was clumsy teaching, but he was still responsible—and right now was clearly the time to instruct those two.

Seeing this, the two quickly said, "Just let us study on our own! Self-study works too!"

"... Fine then."

The blond youth from Unova had no choice but to agree.

The two of them arrived once more before a large tree.

"Not every environment can be used to create a secret base with Secret Power."

Kirlia spoke at length: "Normally, there are three places that are better suited for making a secret base—the rock face in the mountains: a cave; the trunk or branches of a large tree: a tree house; and sufficiently lush shrubs: a flower bed."

He patted the large tree before him. "Tree houses come in two kinds—one is hollowing out the trunk with Secret Power to make it, the other is creating one up in the treetops. For a tree with a diameter like this, the former is a perfect fit. Give it a try... uh, your Pokémon doesn't seem to have learned Secret Power yet."

Baimu nodded.

"Hiss, then I'll just demonstrate again." Kirlia sent out Flygon and commanded, "Use Secret Power on the big tree! Make a secret base!"

"Raii!"

Flygon raised both claws, bent down, and gently pressed them against the trunk. A flash of Bai Guang appeared, and the trunk quickly caved inward, revealing a pitch-black large hole.

A few seconds later, it raised itself back up.

"Raii!"

"It's done." Kirlia beckoned, pulled a flashlight from his pocket, and shone it into the tree hollow. "Come take a look inside—hasn't it already been constructed?"

Baimu leaned in for a peek. True to his word, a space of roughly thirty-odd square meters had indeed appeared inside.

"Once you've learned Secret Power, using it on a trunk automatically creates a space like this? Nothing else to it?"

"Anything else? Nope, really nothing."

Kirlia shook his head.

"..."

He chose to take it at face value for now, then said, "What if you don't make the secret base in one of those three places—what about the living room of a hotel room?"

Unit-00 had once created an other-space that enveloped the living room. His first guess was that it had been made with Secret Power, and he hoped Kirlia could confirm it.

The latter, upon hearing this, replied: "A living room? A secret base made there would be unstable and could collapse at any time—why would you make a secret base in a room? Isn't that redundant!"

"I previously ran into a wild Pokémon that broke into my hotel room and used a patch of other-space to cut me off from my Pokémon. Is that possible?"

"Ah~ well, that's certainly possible. You don't need to be nervous next time — that kind of space can't hold up for more than a few minutes; it'll break down on its own. Just like I said, it's unstable." Kili gave his word.

All Baimu nodded in understanding.

Afterwards, Kili showed him several other forms the secret base could take.

The stone cave secret base inside a rock wall was still relatively normal, but the ones in the shrub flowerbed and up in the treetops were pretty much the same as the alternate space Unit Zero had produced earlier.

Just more stable than that kind of alternate space — they wouldn't collapse at random.

All Baimu asked why, and Kili told him that those two spots satisfied the requirement of being sufficiently concealed — the key point of a secret base lies in those two words: "secret" and "base."

To be honest, it's a bit stream-of-consciousness, but still fairly easy to understand.

Time quickly came to evening.

Having asked about a great deal of secret-base-related content, All Baimu left well satisfied.

With this knowledge, he wouldn't have to worry about any accidents when making secret bases out in the wild from now on.

Back at the hotel.

To celebrate successfully obtaining the Bai Yu Badge, All Baimu made an exceptionally lavish dinner to reward the few meritorious contributors who had taken the field today.

The Three-Headed Dragon was not very happy.

Because in the original plan, it was also a member of the Gym battle team — of course its priority wasn't as high as the first three, but it should have been able to take the field too!

Why do you all have to perform so well? Would it kill you to fight a little harder?

It glared at Happiny and the other two Pokémon, and successfully reaped a great big slap from Mawile.

Smack!

"Chido!"

You little punk been getting pretty cocky lately, huh?

Don't think that just because you evolved I won't dare hit you!

Mawile looked at the Three-Headed Dragon with unfriendly eyes — it had beaten the fellow from small to big, and even though in between there were only a few short months, it had still left an indelible wound on the latter's tender young heart.

Therefore, even though the latter dared to challenge Bossgodora's ace position, one glare from Mawile was still enough to make its heart go weak.

"Sasa…"

The Three-Headed Dragon, wronged, squeezed and nuzzled against its trainer, acting just like a bullied big dog.

"Alright, alright."

All Baimu soothed it for a moment, then shifted his gaze to the outermost edge, where Dragapult was silently burying its head in its food.

As if sensing the attention, Dragapult quietly vanished, leaving only the food in its bowl steadily disappearing as proof it was still there.