Chapter 205: Round Stone on the Seabed

The seawater was extremely cold.

And it carried a heavy, suffocating pressure, as if he were squeezing into a space that didn't belong to him.

All Baimu, with an underwater breather in his mouth, grabbed onto Bingshan and searched for the figures of Mawile and Xiaosheng, and soon spotted the tail of that Gyarados near the front of the hull.

The other party seemed to be planning to swim toward the depths of the sea.

Bang bang!

He patted Bingshan's back, and the latter immediately chased after it at a not-slow speed, its tail swishing rapidly.

He had to catch up to Gyarados before the big monster needed to surface for air; after all, what it had learned was surfing, not diving—it could float on the surface but couldn't stay underwater for long.

"My Beautiful Iceberg Wife"

Bingshan understood this point as well and swam downward with all its might.

Before long, they had actually already touched the seabed; the surroundings became incomparably 【text appears truncated】, and a single stomp immediately kicked up a large cloud of sand.

How far was this place from the surface?

All Baimu realized that in his urgency he hadn't considered the depth at all, but since his lungs hadn't been crushed by the water pressure, the problem probably wasn't too serious.

Seeing that they still couldn't catch up, and Gyarados was even about to swim into the trench ahead, All Baimu climbed to Bingshan's side and gave it a look.

The next instant.

Crackle-crackle!

He saw electric light flickering between Bingshan's two horns, which then transformed into a bolt of lightning that pierced through the seabed and swiftly struck Gyarados's body.

All Baimu had let go of Bingshan's body in time and pulled away, so he only trembled for an instant.

The latter, taking a four-times-weakness electric hit, was in great pain and instinctively let go of the Xiaosheng it had been carrying in its mouth.

This also gave Mawile, which had been waiting a long time, its chance.

Mawile clearly couldn't swim, but holding its breath was still doable; now that it had the chance to catch its breath, it yanked Xiaosheng backward, and with electric current flickering over its little fist, it forcefully overcame the repelling force of the current and suddenly slammed into Gyarados's fin!

Boom!

The electric current exploded outward.

Xiaosheng had been shocked dizzy, and the breath he'd been holding almost broke; fortunately, All Baimu and Bingshan arrived in time—the former shoved the spare underwater breather into his mouth and recalled Mawile with a Poké Ball.

Just as they were about to surface—

"Mm! Mm!"

Xiaosheng kept pointing at the pained Gyarados, his eyes wide.

All Baimu speechlessly gave him a slap on the forehead, thought for a moment, and then tossed out an empty Poké Ball.

Then, without waiting to see whether the recalled Poké Ball had succeeded in capturing it, he grabbed 【Xiaosheng】 and prepared to bring him up, only to discover that at some unknown point a number of Gyarados had appeared around them, their massive swimming figures extremely terrifying.

His heart sank; he suddenly looked upward and saw group after group of rescue personnel in professional diving suits, accompanied by various Water-type Pokémon, approaching.

These people blocked the Gyarados, giving Bingshan the chance to surface.

Not long after.

Above the sea surface.

"Gwoo!"

Bingshan poked its head out of the water, spouting the water from Kong Dong, looking a bit annoyed.

All Baimu and Xiaosheng stood on its back, breathing in huge gulps of fresh air.

"I-I'm sorry."

Xiaosheng was shivering from the cold, his teeth chattering, and he apologized to the former quite ashamedly, "If I'd been a little more careful, this wouldn't have happened."

"This isn't entirely your fault."

All Baimu shook his head and waved at the approaching lifeboat, on which sat Xiaosheng's Kirlia, "It's normal for trainers to run into danger; you've been in situations more critical than this before, haven't you? As long as you respond correctly, that's all that matters."

"Mm!"

Xiaosheng responded softly, then noticed an extra Poké Ball in his arms—clearly the Gyarados that had just been captured at the bottom of the sea—"Big Brother All Baimu?"

"I'm not interested in an ordinary Gyarados; Pokémon like that are everywhere."

All Baimu said, grabbing the rescuer's hand and boarding the lifeboat, "Besides… I've already got my haul."

He turned his head and smiled at Xiaosheng, holding up a large grey-white round stone that had appeared in his hand at some unknown point; it was covered in all kinds of holes, and although it clearly looked very heavy, it gave one the impression of being as light as nothing.

"What is this?"

"I'll tell you once we're back on the ship. Good work, Bingshan."

All Baimu patted Bingshan's head and recalled it into its ball.

After Xiaosheng and Kirlia embraced, he stubbornly handed the Gyarados back, "I don't think I can keep it; although I was lucky enough to hook it, I simply don't have the ability to capture this guy—our strength is completely mismatched."

"…Fine then."

All Baimu didn't insist; since Xiaosheng didn't want it, he'd just send it to Iron Town—planting trees and watering them there would surely have a very bright future.

——

Xiaosheng had lost his fishing rod; All Baimu had gained his haul.

Both had lost the desire to continue participating in the fishing contest; after showering and changing clothes, they met up at the leisure area.

On a table.

The milky-white stone sat quietly.

"Is this a Pokémon too?" Xiaosheng took out his Pokédex and scanned it.

Immediately.

"Beep!"

The Pokédex responded, quickly announcing the true identity of the milky-white stone through voice.

"Corsola, Galarian form, the Coral Pokémon, Ghost-type. There is a theory that it comes from ancient Corsola that died due to sudden environmental changes; if you accidentally kick it thinking it's a stone, it will curse you."

"A regional form Sun Coral! Ghost-type!"

Xiaosheng was startled and turned to look at Baimu.

The latter said, "Earlier at the bottom of the sea it flew up and got stuck on Bouffalant's shoulder. I thought it would surface, but it didn't, so I took the chance and brought it up."

"Heh—eh…"

Xiaosheng's eyes sparkled, clearly very curious about the Galar Sun Coral, but then as if remembering something, he said, "If you pulled it out from the bottom of the sea, won't it curse you?"

"I was worried about that at first too, but later I figured out it probably won't."

Baimu reached out and stroked the Galar Sun Coral, lowering his voice like chanting a spell, "Come out~ come out~"

A few seconds later.

"Sang?"

A low, soft sound, then wisps of white smoke drifted out from every hole in the round stone, forming a phantom coral horn, and two red lights lit up on its front.

The Galar Sun Coral had awakened. It glanced at Baimu and the uneasy Xiaosheng, then closed its eyes.

The Galar Sun Coral fell back asleep.

"…Eh?"

Xiaosheng's uneasy expression froze on his face. "What's going on?"

"As you can see, this guy's personality is listless and loves to sleep. Even when I'm willing to actively feed it vital energy, it doesn't want any." A hint of helplessness appeared on Baimu's face.

The Ghost-type Pokémon the clues pointed to turned out to be a lazy bum—a Ghost-type lazy bum, really leaving one at a loss for words.

Seeing this, Xiaosheng couldn't help but think of his dad's Slaking.

That Pokémon was also a lazy bum.

He asked, "Then in that case, you can't catch it, right?"

"No, I already caught it. It didn't resist at all." Baimu took out a Poké Ball and shook it.

"…Huh?"