Chapter 1169

In the kitchen.

"Happy!"

The former cook, Happiness Egg, solemnly tied her apron around Toxel's waist and handed over her beloved spatula.

Toxel solemnly accepted it, "Boni oh~"

Senior!

I will definitely become a qualified assistant cook and not disappoint your expectations!

The two generations of cooks clasped hands, eyes misty as they gazed at each other.

From another angle, this scene might look slightly comical, but both Pokémon's expressions were especially serious.

Ditto, as the sole observer and photographer, unhesitatingly split into five bodies, flashing like at a press conference, snapping away with a click-click!

Baimu's mouth twitched upon receiving the photo.

Simply handing over a spatula had Ditto photograph it as a significant meeting of important figures from the last century.

"Bao cai ah!"

He sighed, then looked toward the Undying Peach surrounded by its companions.

Since returning from the Reverse World to Platinum Mountain, this fellow has begun frequent twitching, appearing as if about to wake but not quite.

If it truly awakens, it will likely happen within these two days.

Queen Leiguanwang also indicated its life force has been continuously rising, which piqued Baimu's curiosity.

Was it stimulated by Giratina?

Or perhaps...

The Spirit World?

He felt there was a high probability it was related to the Spirit World, and Peach Scoundrel might still wish to meet the elderly couple who adopted it.

Unfortunately, centuries have passed, and the two elders have likely already "reincarnated."

Baimu's gaze toward Peach Scoundrel carried a hint of pity.

Stubborn delusion is indeed the nature of Pokémon, as with the cursed doll, and so is Peach Scoundrel.

Even Toxel often thinks of Boloro.

It simply hasn't said so.

Baimu rose, embracing each of his Pokémon in turn, ignoring their expressions of joy or surprise.

Naturally, Queen Leiguanwang in the garden was not spared.

Meanwhile, Starly appeared expressionless, striking a pose of "Mr., don't do this—I'm a proper deer," though in truth it only masked its shyness.

When it was Howl Tail's turn, he suddenly asked: "By the way, how's Mewtwo doing?"

Having been away for nearly half a month, I've basically paid no attention to news from Pokémon Paradise.

Has Mewtwo left?

This philosopher of the Pokémon world strives to live in remote corners untouched by humans, yet regrettably, human footprints have already spread across the globe.

Even in Mew's secluded haven, Doctor Suigao, Asahi, and A-jian—the organizers of the Mirage Project—keep watch.

Though Pokémon Paradise is indeed secluded and tranquil, it remains under constant surveillance by the Ore Alliance.

The reason no one disturbs it lies partly with Baimu, and partly with Sanen.

These two titans of the Ore region shield Pokémon Paradise; ordinary folk wouldn't even inquire about it, let alone approach deliberately.

I heard Sanen recently plans to designate it as a Pokémon sanctuary.

As the saying goes: true seclusion lies in the wilderness, true hiding lies in the city.

If Mewtwo wishes to reside long-term in Pokémon Paradise, it could at least enjoy decades of peaceful life.

But...

It likely is unwilling.

Simply because the original Mewtwo enjoys seeking the meaning of life, and such a grand topic cannot be figured out by mere daydreaming in one place.

Baimu's thoughts reaching this point, he turned to Howl Tail.

Recently, only it keeps heading toward Pokémon Paradise, with Ditto solely responsible for escorting, appearing and disappearing without trace.

Evil Jigglypuff hands on hips, declaring righteously: "Ee-ya!"

I don't know!

Baimu: "..."

I shouldn't have expected anything from this guy!

He summoned Ditto, ostensibly to send Howl Tail to learn music, and set off for Pokémon Paradise.

Along the way, Howl Tail suddenly remembered it had a song to sing for the trainer, looked up and laughed: "Ee-ya~"

"Uh... ah!? What did you say? The wind's too loud—I can't~hear~!"

Baimu feigned ignorance.

Who would've thought Howl Tail was so blunt, truly believing its volume was too low, took a deep breath and bellowed loudly!

"Ee—ya!!"

The visible sound blast struck Ditto's hindbrain like a motorcycle hitting a pebble on the highway, causing it to panic and lose balance.

"Ga? Ga-si? Ga-si..."

In midair, Ditto tumbled head over heels, disoriented.

Truly appearing as if struck by ultrasonic waves, fallen into a dazed state!

Fortunately, Baimu clung tightly to the handlebars, preventing being flung off; it felt like the sensory thrill of playing a bungee jump simulator.

Howl Tail likewise.

Nestled in its Trainer's arms, it was thoroughly enjoying this experience that was both safe and dangerous, opening its mouth to keep shouting so Milotic would do it again.

How could Baimu allow that?

With quick eyes and quicker hands, he grabbed Loudred's wide-open mouth, pleading, "I heard, I heard! Stop shouting!"

"Gah..."

Milotic turned its head, gazing resentfully at the two rather impolite passengers on its back.

Baimu hurriedly freed a hand to stroke its head in appeasement.

He had fussed about in the high altitude for a long while before gradually wearing off Loudred's sudden whim.

The culprit, however, felt not a shred of guilt, merely expressing strong dissatisfaction at the Trainer's manual muting.

"Mmph! Mmph mph!"

I was kindly trying to sing for you!

Baimu lowered his head to look at Loudred's angry, upturned eyes, a wave of helplessness rising in his heart.

Jigglypuff was, up to now, the most difficult Pokémon he had ever encountered.

Compared to it, even Duraludon seemed exceptionally friendly.

But it wasn't Loudred's fault either.

It mainly lay in cognitive differences and clashing personalities. Loudred was frank and rough; it did whatever it wanted, never caring about others' attitudes, let alone consequences.

Even if it often suffered for it, it still never remembered the lesson.

Interacting with it always gave a sense of powerlessness like playing brain teasers with a Slowpoke.

He released Loudred's mouth, forcing a smile: "You sing, sing softer, my ears work fine now!"

"..."

Milotic's body trembled, already thinking of how to block out the sound.

But to the surprise of both Baimu and Milotic, Loudred actually sang — it was most certainly not pure noise stimulating the eardrums.

It had rhythm, melody, high and low notes.

Baimu lightly patted his forehead, ashamed that he had underestimated Loudred.

He had originally just sent it to the Explouds so it would know how a loud Pokémon should properly adjust its volume in daily life.

It actually learned?

Though it was still death metal he couldn't appreciate, this growth deserved praise!

He stroked Loudred's antenna-like long hair, saying, "Not bad! Very good!"

"Ah?"

Loudred looked at him smugly.

Milotic said nothing, simply continuing to increase its flight speed.

Compared to Baimu who faced Loudred and self-reflected, it still maintained its "original verdict."

Terrible! So terrible it would rather take a beating from Milotic!

It had completely had enough of Loudred; this was the worst passenger it had ever carried!

Before long.

Milotic, flying at full speed, successfully reached the Abandoned Ship.

When it saw Loudred voluntarily jump off its back and wave goodbye to them like an elementary student off to cram school.

"Gah-oh~"

Milotic wanted to leave, but unexpectedly Baimu walked over as well.

"I'll go say hi to Exploud and the others."

To have taught Loudred to this extent, the Explouds must have put in tremendous effort.

As Loudred's Trainer, he ought to show his appreciation.

Milotic reluctantly followed. And inside the ship's concert venue, a group of Explouds saw Baimu behind Loudred and greeted him warmly.

"Gugu!"

"Hello everyone! Thanks for your hard work! Thank you for taking care of my Loudred~"

Baimu cheerfully pulled out various foods from the Shiny Gengar's belly.

The whole group of Explouds and Loudreds' eyes lit up, and they rushed forward to scramble for it.

Loudred watched this scene, its face full of pride.

"Yiya~"

Eat!

Eat freely!

Trainer has plenty of food!

Milotic scanned the surroundings, and not finding any sandwiches it liked, disinterestedly found a corner to lie down in.

When the food was mostly eaten up.

Baimu asked, "Have you guys been to the Manor lately? Do you know what the situation is there?"

"Gugu?"

The Explouds' faces were written full of bewilderment.

Manor? Situation?

They rarely approached that area, especially after N left; there was simply no need to go.

After all, their usual music tours went where Pokémon were plentiful.

The Manor only had a bunch of "dead ghosts."

Seeing this, Baimu thought to himself, no wonder Roaring Tail didn't know anything either; turns out everyone's the same.

"You can't demand that a group of Pokemon have information-gathering efficiency as high as yours." Porygon-Z added by way of explanation.

Not to mention the ability of Trainers to always obtain accurate intelligence at the first possible moment.

Just the vast amount of knowledge he possesses is enough to astonish Porygon-Z, an entity that can query the internet at any time.

Legendary and Mythical Pokemon are so mysterious; where on earth did Baimu get that much information?

Guessing? Deduction?

To this day, it remains a mystery Porygon-Z cannot comprehend.

——

In fact.

Mewtwo had discovered Baimu long ago.

For a Pokemon like it that can manipulate the weather, covering the entire Pokemon Paradise with its psychic power is no difficult task.

The reason it continued lingering here was that it discovered this place was indeed very peaceful.

Unlike other habitats, it didn't need to rely on its power to conceal it a second time.

In the past half month, Baimu was the first human to set foot here.

Regarding this strange land, Mewtwo had specifically investigated via the internet, and had even nearly hacked into the Aole League's archives.

The reason it reined in at the brink was that its tracks were almost discovered by a Pokemon called Porygon2.

Mewtwo certainly didn't want to expose its identity, so it decisively chose to withdraw.

But based on public information alone, it was enough for it to gain a certain understanding of Aole, and finally understand why no one disturbed it—

Vast land, sparse population!

Aole's population is highly concentrated in a few core cities.

Due to the scarcity of wild Pokemon, the Gym Leaders had only seen three challengers pass through; in the wilderness, not a human shadow could be seen.

On top of that, the owner of this house had an agreement with the League President and Champion of this region, so there was no idle person with nothing to do who would travel thousands of miles to come to the Pokemon Paradise.

What would they come for?

A large portion of the Paradise's Pokemon belong to criminals; their personalities and habits are highly fixed, and few Trainers fancy them.

Mewtwo was happy to see this outcome, preparing to stay for a while longer.

N's many video recordings had given it new thoughts; it needed to digest this content.

As for Baimu, who occasionally came by...

Mewtwo chose to ignore him.

For some reason, it didn't feel much rejection toward him; perhaps because Baimu had been acknowledged by Mew?

It planned to observe a bit more; in any case, it had plenty of time.

Mewtwo spied on him like this all the way, until Baimu and Milotic arrived outside the manor and greeted the many Pokemon one by one.

It thought for a moment, but did not go to welcome them.

The two sides weren't familiar; from start to finish they hadn't really communicated directly, and at their first meeting the atmosphere had been sword-drawn and bow-bent.

Considering the awkward relationship between them, Mewtwo decided to wait for Baimu to take the initiative to visit.

But what surprised it was that Baimu only wandered around the limited area of the living room, then rode Milotic and left.

He had absolutely no intention of meeting it.

While Mewtwo was feeling puzzled, Dusknoir suddenly showed up, fawningly telling it that Baimu had sent greetings to it.

Mewtwo: "Why didn't he come himself?"

"Tch-hiss~"

Dusknoir indicated that Baimu said there was no need to disturb its peace.

Mewtwo fell silent, fingers tapping the armrest.

"... Strange human."

Meanwhile, high in the sky, Milotic voiced much the same question to Baimu: came all that way, but left without seeing him?

Baimu said: "I'm not familiar with him, and you have to know that guy is different from Mew; he's not that easy to deal with."

To him, Mewtwo was like a stray cat he'd occasionally crossed paths with; one day after getting off work he'd suddenly think of it, and on a whim go take a look.

Confirm it was there, and he'd be at ease.

Mew was undoubtedly another restless stray cat, and one that had actively lured this stray cat Mewtwo over, then washed its hands of the matter.

The next day.

Lady Ayana sent word that she had passed the Gym Leader assessment.

Baimu brought a gift and paid a visit, "Congratulations, congratulations! Huang Tie City Gym?"

"Violet Qinggang."

Lady Ayana had indeed chosen to develop in the port city; she herself was originally from Violet Qinggang, and later transferred to Huang Tie City.

Of course, this was also closely related to the Water-type she excelled at.

On the other hand, competition for the Huang Tie City Gym vacancy was quite fierce; not only locals, but outsiders had also thrown their hats in the ring.

Who told them it was the hometown of the Aole Champion?

To celebrate Lady Ayana's successful appointment as Gym Leader, the Rainbow Team held an internal banquet.

Shanian also made time to come.

Although he wasn't particularly close with Lady Ayana, at least they had once stood on the same battle line.

"One month at most, I'm holding the first Champion League; you'd better not run around recklessly during this time."

Shanian gave advance notice.

Baimu retorted, "When did I run around randomly? Those were all for legitimate business!"

"Yes, yes, yes, anyway leave me time, unless it's an especially crucial match in the World Championships!"

Yamazato knew his current ranking, so he also knew Baimu wouldn't need long to rise to the level of the Eight Masters.

He just feared it would happen to coincide.

Baimu smiled and said, "Rest assured, I have plenty of ways."

That night.

He climbed on foot to the mountainside, his head completely clear.

His powerful physique let him metabolize no matter how much alcohol he drank, so those who came in turns to toast at the banquet were basically drunk under the table.

Including Yamazato, this overconfident League President.

Master Liu Ge escaped unscathed due to sufficient restraint, but Baimu could discover he had drunk others under the table, then look at him — his hands were trembling.

How could he be a qualified Pokemon Investigator like this?

"Boss Liu Ge, tsk tsk tsk."

As Baimu lamented, Gouyen suddenly burst open the door, barking anxiously, grabbing his arm.

"Woof! Woo-woof! Awoo!"

"Awake?"

He knew at once it must be Tao Dailang awake, and hurriedly ran into the basement.

Sure enough.

At the core surrounded by Jizhiji and Yuan Zengyuan, cracks emerged from the middle of the Incorruptible Peach, then slowly opened.

"Ah~~"

Tao Dailang yawned, looked cutely at Bao Ban and Baimu, then suddenly flew backward in fright.

"Squeak!?"

Who are you!?