Chapter 24: Temporary Reinforcement

He had established a friendly relationship with Chansey.

The main reason was that this little pink egg was considerate enough not to refuse his attempts at communication just because of its own tragic past.

Abandoned twice and still carrying itself with such grace—Baimu genuinely admired it, and couldn't help glancing at its data a couple more times.

Reading pure text was rather taxing, but fortunately he had specifically purchased a literacy reading pen earlier; stumbling through it, he could still convert it into content he understood.

【Pokémon: Chansey】

【Type: Normal】

【Gender: Female】

【Height: 108cm / Weight: 34kg】

【Ability: Natural Cure】

【Level: 30】

【Moves: Pound / Defense Curl / Tail Whip / Egg Bomb】

【Minimize / Sing / Heal Pulse / Heal Bell】

Only one attacking move—Pound? And it only knows nine moves total; no wonder the "original price" was just 1.1 million.

Most trainers in Iron Town were short-sighted and worshipped direct combat ability; concepts like support, team healer, or special tank positions were things they didn't really understand.

"Every Pokémon has to be a battle god!"

A very straightforward way of thinking.

Baimu felt Chansey was excellent; if it hadn't been abducted here, it surely could have become a fine Pokémon Nurse in the future.

"A talent nearly buried."

Under Chansey's puzzled gaze, he patted its fuzzy little head, and not wanting to play favorites, he patted Aron as well.

After soothing the two real pillars of his own team, it was time for the reinforcement sent by his good big brother, Master Liu Ge.

Each version of Poké Ball had subtle differences in its design; the one before him could shrink and clearly showed no visible interior. Baimu guessed it probably wasn't an extremely high-level Pokémon.

Because high-level Pokémon had pride—just like a Charizard, once it didn't acknowledge you, no one could do anything about it. Thinking back now, the Rhydon that had been carrying Shibata probably hadn't acknowledged him either.

"Regardless, you two, stay a little alert."

Baimu gestured for Aron and Chansey to step back.

But Chansey clearly couldn't read his signal, and stood there at a loss; fortunately Aron was sharp enough, very amiably grabbing its little tail and dragging it back a bit.

Only then did it retreat backward.

Pop!

A white light shot out, transforming into a tender-shoot-green figure, accompanied by a slightly noisy sound of wings beating.

Buzz buzz—

"Vibrava!"

Baimu looked at the giant antlion before him with some surprise.

Should he say it was worthy of being a Pokémon from an executive? Compared to the two he'd seen in the mine earlier, this one's size was far larger.

"Lafu!"

Vibrava nimbly fluttered in mid-air, the antennae on its little head swaying up and down; its dark-green big eyes looked rather cute.

Baimu noticed there seemed to be something on its left foreleg; he took it and looked, and it turned out to be a crumpled piece of paper.

Carefully unfolding it, he could see many characters; he barely managed to make out some with the literacy reading pen, and realized what was written on it should be Vibrava's information.

At the very bottom seemed to be a piece of advice from Master Liu Ge, the phrasing unexpectedly simple.

【This is the youngest and gentlest one. Whether you can get it to help you is up to you.】

"Young and gentle."

Baimu raised his head, just meeting Vibrava's gaze. "Hello?"

"Lafu~"

Vibrava replied softly, its pure and peaceful expression showing not a trace of hostility, and then—

Buzz!

It suddenly launched a charge!

The close-range rush startled Baimu; fortunately his reflexes made him sidestep, and he avoided being hit by Vibrava.

"Gugu!"

"Wait—"

He hurriedly raised his hand to stop Aron, whose face was full of killing intent, and ordered it to go soothe the nervous Chansey, then looked again at Vibrava, whose wings had stopped beating but which hovered in mid-air thanks to its Levitate ability.

This guy…

Baimu's gaze met those emerald-like big eyes, and he actually detected an extremely human-like mockery within them.

Gentle?

Perhaps compared to Master Liu Ge's other Pokémon.

"Then let's be straightforward. Aron and I will team up and have a fight with you. If we win, you listen to me until we get back. If we lose, do as you please. How about it?"

Baimu didn't use Master Liu Ge's name to pressure Vibrava either; doing so would more easily provoke the other's rebellious streak.

Let strength do the talking.

"Lafu!"

Vibrava glanced at Aron, flicked its wings disdainfully, and dove toward it!

Clearly this guy planned to take it out as fast as possible, thereby showing its contempt for Baimu.

"Dig!"

Baimu let out a loud shout; Aron fixed its eyes on Vibrava, swiftly dug open the ground, and burrowed down.

Buzz—

The ultrasonic larva swept across the ground like a bomber on a pass.

It had to loop around in a wide arc just to turn back, its displeasure already at the breaking point.

But just as it dove at the burrow, intending to use Ultrasonic to force Roggenrola out, it saw Roggenrola poke its head out on its own.

"Mud-Slap right in the face!"

Plop!

A great blob of mud came spurting over; the ultrasonic larva couldn't dodge in time and got plastered head to toe.

Ground-type moves were indeed not very effective against its Levitate ability, but All Baimu's aim wasn't to deal damage with Mud-Slap.

"Lafu!"

It flailed wildly from side to side, twisting its head nonstop trying to scrape the mud off its face, but to no avail.

This thing's real-world model is an antlion, not a dragonfly — though it can fly at high speed for short bursts, it lacks the ability to hover in place, so once it gets hit, it's a done deal.

Whose fault is it for giving up at the start the surefire tactic of long-range ultrasonic harassment?

Suffice it to say, too young, too simple.

Still just a youngster, after all.

"Chase it down and use Mud-Slap!"

All Baimu waved his hand. Roggenrola has an awkward problem right now — it doesn't have any decent ranged attacking moves.

He'd been thinking about learning new moves since day one, and the fact that the Rock Blast he'd recently obtained couldn't be learned only sharpened his sense of urgency.

"Gu!"

Roggenrola chased after the flailing ultrasonic larva. The other was wobbling through the air, so Roggenrola could only keep taking aim and spitting, like hawking up phlegm.

After two or three sprays in a row, when the ultrasonic larva noticed the mud on its body and face piling up, it finally snapped.

"Dig a hole, quick!"

All Baimu spotted it in time and shouted, sprinting backward without hesitation, scooping up the panicking Chansey as he passed.

Whoooosh—

A surging cloud of yellow sand spun wildly around the ultrasonic larva, and as its wings beat at high speed, the sand pelted outward like raindrops.

Sand Tomb!

All Baimu and Chansey huddled in a corner, shielding their faces from the flying sand, and watched the ultrasonic larva's state through the gaps in their fingers.

The thing was now like a headless fly, crashing and bumbling around everywhere, as wretched as if it had fallen into a confused state.

But to his surprise, Chansey was panicking without trembling — he'd assumed it was just timid by nature, but now it looked more like nervousness, at a loss for what to do.

It kept glancing outside now and then, a certain vaguely worried look crossing its face.

"You're worried about it?"

All Baimu asked curiously, bending down.

Chansey looked up at him, its two little hands rubbing together in front of its chest, looking utterly torn.

"In that case, go save it — pull it out of this painful state."

All Baimu smiled and patted its head. "Go do the only thing you can — save, and heal."

"Lucky?"

"Chansey! Use Sing on the ultrasonic larva!"

A gentle push from behind sent Chansey out of the corner. It looked at the ultrasonic larva, thrashing and suffering across the sky, and the fear in its heart gradually faded. It drew a deep breath.

Ignoring the sand pelting its face, it placed its hands before its chest, closed its eyes, tilted its head back, and began to sing a sweet song.

"~La? La la la~?"

All Baimu covered his ears and silently watched as, beneath the pale pink sound waves, the ultrasonic larva's movements shifted from frantic to sluggish, until finally it dropped to the ground and fell asleep with its eyes closed.