Chapter 145: The Elite Four Member Requests a Calligraphy Piece

The arrival of the Alolan Persian not only filled the gap in the team's lineup, it also meant the Calligrapher would no longer get lost.

The big cat was born with an extremely keen sense of direction, and a pair of golden-red slit pupils that could see through any object—more than once tracking down escaped prey and finding lost children.

Even when writing at night, she could simply have the Alolan Persian shine light from its eyes onto the paper, sparing her from having to write by moonlight or campfire light, which were either too blurry or too easy to set something on fire.

However, this consumed a great deal of electrical energy, and if not replenished in time, the Alolan Persian would fall into a long sleep.

For this reason, whenever the Calligrapher passed through the wilderness, she generally kept the Alolan Persian inside its Poké Ball and rarely brought it out to battle.

And ever since she made a pact with Monini.

The Calligrapher had consciously increased the opportunities for Monini to come out and battle, and through all of this, Baimu came to understand that the strength of the Smeargle was not without source—it was the result of the Calligrapher's own efforts.

The narrator states.

Before the Calligrapher devoted herself to calligraphy, she had raised quite a few Pokémon; the Smeargle and the Alolan Persian were among them.

So the label of "newbie trainer" could basically be taken off her head now.

The Calligrapher simply hadn't traveled, not that she hadn't raised Pokémon.

When she immersed herself in calligraphy, those "old friends" stayed behind at home, in various villas across Sinnoh, cared for and raised by dedicated staff.

Whenever the Calligrapher felt like a change of mood and went to stay at one of the villas, she could go visit them.

Just like right now.

This person, who had arrived at Hearthome City, welcomed back her fourth Pokémon—

【You obtained an Altaria, a childhood playmate—your traveling companions have increased.】

Another childhood playmate.

Baimu could only feel that 【Wealthy Background】 was simply too overpowered; no wonder people said she could raise Pokémon with no worries, since even if she went off to do other things midway, there were people to keep raising those Pokémon for her.

And the reason the Calligrapher welcomed back the Altaria was very simple.

On one hand, she happened to be in the area; on the other hand, she valued its ability to sing beautiful songs.

In her view, whether challenging a Gym or writing calligraphy, she needed a BGM to give her more power.

Baimu could only feel that rich people really did have their own ways.

——

Arriving at Canalave City.

Facing the vast, magnificent sea and the giant cruise ships coming and going, the Calligrapher left behind a single character—"sea"—against the sea breeze.

She was quite satisfied with this piece and decided to submit it as her competition entry.

Although a single character wasn't really suitable for a calligraphy competition, this was the best work she could currently produce; the other one was the "forest" character from the very first day.

During this period, her unconventional approach quickly drew onlookers.

Then.

She was recognized.

【You were surrounded and pursued by calligraphy enthusiasts. Many felt regretful about your silence these past few days, and many said they were looking forward to your future works.】

Seeing the Calligrapher barely manage to break free from these people's encirclement.

Baimu was surprised that there were so many calligraphy enthusiasts here; even in the far more bustling Hearthome City, hardly anyone had recognized the Calligrapher.

But after seeing the Canalave City Library, he understood.

As the once-only library in all of Sinnoh, its collection could be said to be the most complete in all of Sinnoh, and thus it possessed a sufficiently rich cultural atmosphere.

Many history buffs would come to the Canalave Library to consult documents.

The Calligrapher, in order to better understand the matter of the Lake Pokémon, also came to the library.

While flipping through things, she was suddenly blocked by a blue-haired man wearing sunglasses.

【You encountered an enthusiast of ancient script who was very interested in your characters that resembled the rebirth of ancient civilization, and hoped you would leave him a calligraphy copy. Upon others' explanations, you learned that the other party was Elite Four member Lucian.】

What the—?

Baimu's mouth fell wide open, completely unable to believe that the Calligrapher was famous enough that even Lucian came to ask for her calligraphy.

What was even more unexpected was that the Calligrapher chose to refuse.

【You said you might not be able to write characters like before, and told Lucian your plan. Lucian was very regretful, yet agreed with your idea.】

"Sword Come"

【Delighted, you decided to give the characters you had once written to the other party, and suddenly remembered that he also had a Mr. Mime, so you proposed hoping he could coach your Monini.】

Although the Calligrapher had only one Badge, she wasn't the least bit intimidated, and proactively had Monini battle Lucian's Mr. Mime.

Although she lost very quickly, the Calligrapher still learned a few things from it.

"I didn't learn anything… how annoying."

Baimu rested his chin on his hand, expressing regret over the pixel-style animation; he too would love to receive personal instruction from an Elite Four member.

The scene shifted.

The Calligrapher arrived at the Canalave Gym.

The Gym Leader here was Byron—Piott's father.

The man known as the Steel Body, upon learning that the Calligrapher had left a calligraphy piece for his son, shamelessly insisted on getting one from her as well.

The latter, wanting to start the Gym challenge as soon as possible, had no choice but to agree.

Byron's specialty was Steel-type Pokémon; like his son, he possessed a Pokémon revived from a fossil—Shieldon.

But needless to say, for the strength of a second Gym, it was basically not particularly difficult for the Calligrapher.

Byron was defeated very quickly.

After much deliberation, the Calligrapher left Byron a calligraphy piece of the character "steel."

Written using Byron's own shovel, no less.

Such an unconventional method of writing she wouldn't have even considered in the past, but now she was completely open to anything.

Of course.

This kind of thing that was more artwork than copybook, she definitely wouldn't submit to a contest, so she only left it for Donggua to keep.

—

End of the dojo challenge.

The Calligrapher left Shuimai City.

This left All Baimu, who had been hoping she could meet Darkrai, deeply regretful — after all, the Dotto was the main culprit behind Darkrai's signature move 【Dark Hole】 being nerfed.

If the Calligrapher's Dotto could learn 【Dark Hole】, her odds of winning the League Conference would surely be much higher.

Too bad she didn't have such good luck.

Shuimai City was extremely close to the Calligrapher's destination, Heart Lake — as long as she avoided the main roads and cut straight through the forest, she could reach it in less than two days.

With a flying unit like the Swellow and a pathfinding marvel like the Luxray, the Calligrapher naturally had no fear of the forest.

Full of spirit and swagger, she plunged right in.

Over these past days, she had done specialized training on her cooking, and had basically reached the level of "edible" — she was just thinking of giving it a try right now.

And after several days of braving the wind and sleeping rough—

The Calligrapher successfully arrived at her destination, the legendary dwelling place of the Lake's Pokémon—

Heart Lake.

As a writer of ancient script, the Calligrapher was eager to know the feelings of the person who had created these characters, so she had made a special trip to experience it firsthand.