Chapter 257: Dragon Fang Coral's Loss

Early morning.

All Baimu woke to the licking of a Single-Striped Dragon.

He sleepily wiped the drool from his face and asked, "Why didn't it bite my hand today… oh right, that's how the wake-up bell mode works."

"Mo Nao!"

The Single-Striped Dragon cried out loudly, bouncing back and forth on the bed.

"Alright, alright, little alarm clock, settle down."

He pressed down on the Single-Striped Dragon's head, and only then did it quiet down.

But just as the trainer was getting out of bed with a big yawn, the Single-Striped Dragon inexplicably sensed a resentful gaze gathering on itself.

But it didn't need to guess who it was.

"Mo Nao?"

It called out softly.

Like a flower unfurling, it released all its tentacles and entered first-level alert status. The Galarian Sun Coral glared at the Single-Striped Dragon for two seconds, then dejectedly retracted them.

As a slack-off coral, not to mention how much effort it would take to actively go over and beat up the Single-Striped Dragon, would beating it up change its daily trampolining habit?

No.

So it simply lay flat, as if nothing had ever happened.

Meanwhile, the Single-Striped Dragon, having waited half a day with no response, grew even more confused. Among all the Pokémon in the house, it alone didn't know how to get along with the Galarian Sun Coral.

"Mo Nao…"

Silence.

That was the reason — a response that never came.

If it weren't for the scent still letting it pick up the Galarian Sun Coral, it would really think the other didn't actually exist.

Losing interest, the Single-Striped Dragon jumped off the bed and, following the scent, ran all the way to the bathroom. "Mo Nao! Mo Nao!"

All Baimu, who was brushing his teeth, looked curiously at this little fellow who was always full of energy. "What's up? Do you want to brush your teeth?"

Brush teeth!

The Single-Striped Dragon's body stiffened.

If the Pokémon it couldn't handle was the Galarian Sun Coral, then the thing it couldn't handle was brushing its teeth.

It really couldn't stand the taste of Pokémon-specific toothpaste. It couldn't swallow it, and when it wanted to spit it out, the toothbrush stirring around made it hard to spit. For it, this was nothing short of torture.

"Mo… Nao…"

The Single-Striped Dragon quietly backed away.

Then it bumped into the Chansey that was about to come in.

"Lucky?"

"Mo Nao!" The Single-Striped Dragon startled and immediately tried to barge past it to run away, but at that moment All Baimu spoke up.

"Grab it! Today's tooth-brushing day!"

Chansey heard this, gave the Single-Striped Dragon an apologetic smile, and hugged its slender neck.

The latter struggled desperately and shouted nonstop, as if it were about to be killed.

But what awaited it was only a round-headed toothbrush, and All Baimu's mischievous grinning face. "Biting my hand and licking my face every day — how can we let that go without taking care of your oral hygiene?"

"Mo Nao—"

"Shouting won't help. Keep yelling and it's five more minutes!"

"Mo Nao!

"Ten minutes!

The Single-Striped Dragon fell silent and obediently let Chansey drag it into the bathroom.

Half an hour later.

All Baimu, having finally finished dealing with the Pokémon's hygiene, let out a breath and poked the Single-Striped Dragon's skull. "When will you ever stop making me and Chansey this tired!"

"Mo Nao~"

The Single-Striped Dragon kept licking its own teeth with its tongue. The freshly brushed teeth were so slippery it wasn't quite used to it.

All Baimu looked at it, but couldn't help thinking of what it would look like after evolving.

One head is already this much trouble — how would two heads be handled… It would probably take four people to hold it down and make it obediently brush its teeth clean.

"Phew…"

He exhaled a breath of stale air, pulled open the curtains to let golden sunlight flood into the bedroom, and caught in his peripheral vision the Galarian Sun Coral quietly propping itself up and flying off to a spot without sunlight.

slkslk.

Today's goal was only one — arrive at Brawltown.

Conveniently, the anime's Castelia City was different from the game and could be reached by ferry. Since the two places were close, it probably wouldn't take long on the road, so he could take it nice and easy.

A short while later.

All Baimu, backpack on, went to the front desk to check out, praising and thanking the hotel for its excellent service these past few days.

Not leaking information might be a basic work or moral issue for hotels or management staff, but for him, someone from his past life who was used to having his personal information constantly sold off, this was truly worthy of praise.

Not being blocked by reporters when going out, and being arranged a private car to the pier — praise upon praise.

"It's your turn today. Stay sharp.

Sitting in the car, he touched the Galarian Sun Coral on his shoulder, but the latter gave no response.

Having Pokémon follow along helps build affinity. Since his relationship with the Galarian Sun Coral was really too much like an employer-employee one, All Baimu decided to take it out for walks more often.

Unfortunately, the Galarian Sun Coral had zero interest in the outside world, not even bothering to open its eyes and look. Once it landed on All Baimu's shoulder, it switched into isolation-from-the-world mode.

If All Baimu weren't wearing a black T-shirt, people would really think he'd inexplicably grown a tumor the size of a human head.

——

The dock.

Baimu had timed it perfectly — a ferry was about to depart for Battle Town in half an hour, and there were plenty of empty seats.

The Pokémon world was vast and sparsely populated; most people clustered in big cities like Kanaz City, and since traveling had become a global craze — one might even say it was baked into the DNA of humans in the anime world — many places ended up feeling rather empty.

Take the ferry he was about to board, for instance.

A quick count showed over a hundred seats, yet the total number of passengers and Pokémon combined could be counted on two hands.

"Empty's not bad either."

Baimu was happy for the peace and quiet — it gave him a chance to chat properly with his Galarian Corsola. Talking didn't cost any effort, and he could even do all the talking himself.

After spending so long with Galarian Corsola, he had a pretty good idea of its weak points by now.

Light.

As a Ghost-type Pokémon, Galarian Corsola's true body was just a mass of smoke of unknown composition; the stone shell was more like its "coffin."

So, if you shone light in through Kong Dong, Galarian Corsola would feel the humiliation of having its coffin lid pried open.

And then wake up.

Baimu occasionally used this method to tell it "time to clock in," but clearly today wasn't one of those times.

The Galarian Corsola, woken by the light, opened its eyes. "Sann?"

"Nothing's up, just chatting with you."

He even gave it a smile.

The Galarian Corsola, which had thought it was being called out for battle, very naturally put on a "are you sick in the head?" expression.

Baimu, completely unfazed, went right ahead and started rambling about this and that.

And every time Galarian Corsola tried to mute him, he'd flash a flashlight at it — quick as a mosquito suddenly buzzing in your ear and then vanishing again.

Woken with a start three or four times in a row.

Galarian Corsola's face fell, and all its tentacles poked out. "Sann!"

What do you mean by that! You wanna fight?!

Baimu kept his smile, chatting away about the lunch he might eat in Battle Town at noon, as if he hadn't noticed it bristling like that.

Galarian Corsola really had no choice but to stay in a half-asleep, low-power mode and listen to the guy ramble on.

What else could it do? Take a bite out of him?

Taking a bite would be easy, but once it actually started something, the guy would never let it go. It knew perfectly well that some moves that looked like they'd solve the trouble would actually bring more trouble.

You think a slacking-off expert would tell you that?