Chapter 429: Captives of Cuisine

Route 119.

A dense forest through which a river runs north to south.

As the eastern region of Hoenn, influenced by heavier rainfall, the vegetation coverage and lushness here far surpass those of the west.

There are even many trees over a hundred meters tall growing here, and the treehouses of Fortree City are built upon these great trees.

When Baimu arrived, a light, scattered drizzle happened to be falling from the sky; many water-loving Pokémon darted through the trees, and quite a few fish-type Pokémon could be seen floating on the water's surface.

Among them were no few Feebas and Luvdisc—Pokémon hard to encounter in the west.

The shiny Milotic was very fond of this sort of environment, swimming happily against the current, freely displaying its charm under the admiring attention of the surrounding water-dwelling Pokémon.

Even on an overcast, rainy day, its scales still radiated a breathtaking brilliance.

The riverbank.

"Do you think it might be because of the influence of Kyogre and Groudon that there's this subtle climatic difference between Hoenn's east and west sides?" he asked quietly into his phone, with Dragonair-big-sister on his head and wearing a raincoat.

A response came at once from the speaker.

Mmm, you mean Kyogre and Groudon respectively live on the west and east sides of the Hoenn region, so their traits have affected the natural environment? "Pory-pory?"

Two synchronized voices rang out, one from the left and one from the right, accompanied by the sound of rolling waves and two cheerful cries.

Ah, this is tough. "Pory."

"Take it slow, aren't I keeping you company practicing right now? And what you just said really is what I was thinking."

Baimu turned his head to look at the shiny Milotic swimming upstream in the river not far away, along with Porygon-II and Dragonair-little-brother clinging to various parts of its body and laughing merrily.

The three Pokémon seemed to be having a great time playing.

Only one of them seemed slightly distracted, as if paying attention to something else.

The special-edition 【Substitute】, although successfully released thanks to Porygon-II's efforts, for some reason the clone and the original had fallen into a state of mental synchronization.

Simply put, if you call out to it, normally only one of them needs to respond, but both its original body and its clone will respond—

It's not that there are two "I"s, but that both "I"s are me.

【One Heart, Two Uses】.

After Baimu noticed this, he couldn't help feeling a twinge of regret, yet also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He had once imagined—what if the Substitute became an independent entity, and when its typing energy and stamina ran out it said it didn't want to disappear, wanted to keep on living—what would he, as its trainer, do then?

He'd definitely try his hardest to let the other Porygon-II stay!

But if that were the case, could the Substitute Porygon-II still smoothly enter the battle and fight two-against-one alongside the main body?

Obviously not.

If the Substitute didn't disappear, the League would naturally add that special rule unique to the Porygon family, just like with Dragapult.

"Aren't you going to go play too?"

Baimu tilted his head up and asked the Dragonair-big-sister on his head.

"Hiyah!"

Dragonair-big-sister shook her head firmly. Although she really wanted to go join in the fun—surfing looked like a lot of fun—she had to maintain a solemn, reliable image in front of her little brother.

"... Well then, if you want to go over just go whenever you like, don't feel embarrassed about it."

He said softly.

Dragonair-big-sister shook her head again—as if she'd be embarrassed!

Baimu looked away. Keeping his gaze fixed upward like this was really a strain on his eyes; after a while it felt like his entire eyeballs were about to roll back.

He might as well carry a small mirror on him.

He thought to himself.

Today's Pokémon accompanying him on routine was Milotic. It just so happened that Route 119 had a river running north to south—couldn't have been more perfect.

And the reason he'd released the Dragonair-Messia siblings as well was that he believed that to initially win Dragapult's goodwill, he had to first raise the goodwill of the Dragonair-Messia siblings.

As long as the Dragonair-Messia siblings fully obeyed him, the Dragapult hoping to become their partner would naturally have to obediently listen to him.

After making this opening move, he'd try using Dragon Heart to communicate mind-to-mind with Dragapult.

Of course.

He had to master Dragon Heart first. The comparatively gentler and friendlier Dragonair-Messia siblings were undoubtedly better practice partners, since the two sides weren't yet familiar with each other.

With a Hydreigon-type, you know what it's going to do the moment it sticks its butt up—there's really no knowing how to exchange information mind-to-mind with that, when a single glance would do.

"A love for Dragon-type Pokémon, huh..."

Baimu fell into thought. He considered himself already very fond of Dragon-type Pokémon, but it seemed he'd need to take it a step further.

Suddenly.

The fine drizzle began to grow heavier.

It pattered against his raincoat with a crackling sound, and the overcast sky faintly flickered with Lei Guang.

"Hold on! Let's find somewhere to take shelter!" Baimu immediately called out to the Milotic in the river. Although it hadn't finished playing, it obediently returned to the bank, sliding up the shore with snake-like wriggles.

Dragonair-little-brother shot over like a bullet, and without thinking, drenched from head to toe, tried to burrow into his raincoat.

"Don't!"

Baimu had no desire to have something constantly dripping water on his head, so he hurriedly recalled it into its Poké Ball, planning to find a place to shelter from the rain and then wipe it dry.

With no cave to be found, he only managed to find a sufficiently large tree hollow.

And it was an occupied tree hollow.

"... Hello? I just want to shelter from the rain! Quick, translate for me."

Baimu waved at the four wild Galvantula crouched inside the hollow but raising their heads to look at him. Porygon-II immediately let out a stream of "pory-pory" calls.

The Galvantula exchanged glances.

"Meow-ow!"

"Meow—"

A terrifying low growl sounded beside his ear. Judging from the puffed-up postures of these fellows, they were clearly trying to intimidate him into leaving.

But All Baimu, who had finally found shelter from the rain, wasn't about to leave.

"Milotic! Hypnosis!"

The Milotic at his side glided forward, its eyes faintly glowing blue. Pink-purple light waves spread outward, directly catching the two in front that had been trying to intimidate. Caught off guard, their eyelids instantly grew heavy.

The two behind, seeing things going badly, screeched and lunged forward, but the space was too narrow, so they inevitably collided with their companions in front a few times.

They looked oddly rather bedraggled.

"Mirror Coat!"

Porygon2 transformed into an irregular wall, blocking the attack path of those two Galarian Meowth. From inside the tree hollow came frantic, furious howls.

Then, in a flash of Bai Guang, the wall Porygon2 had become vanished like smoke.

The two furious Galarian Meowth broke free.

But by now Milotic's next Hypnosis was already waiting for them.

And so.

Four sleeping white-furred big cats appeared beside All Baimu.

To keep them sleeping peacefully for a long time, he even took out some sleep-aid essential oils. The expressions of the four Galarian Meowth instantly shifted from struggling to relaxed.

"Resolved peacefully~"

He smiled at his group of Pokémon.

Whether beating up these wild Galarian Meowth or driving them out into the rain was not what he wanted. Everyone quietly sheltering from the rain together was best.

All Baimu took off his raincoat, released Dreepy from its ball, and used a Mao Jin to dry it off. Fortunately, since Dreepy's original form was a salamander-like Pokémon, its body had no fuzz, only scales, so a Mao Jin was enough to dry it.

"Hiiya~"

Dreepy shook its body, its gaze drifting toward the Galarian Meowth deep inside the tree hollow. Its eyes lit up. "Hiiya—"

Smack!

Drakloak silently grabbed its tail and tapped its head with one claw. "Hiiya!"

Just knew you'd go cause trouble over there!

Dreepy covered its head aggrievedly. "Hiiya~"

"Hahaha… don't worry. As long as you don't attack them, they won't wake up that easily. You have to trust the power of Hypnosis and the aromatherapy."

All Baimu laughed heartily and patted their heads, sniffing twice with a strange expression.

As he had said before, one major characteristic of wild Pokémon was that their fur was covered in all sorts of unique musky odors—charitably described as the smell of wild beasts.

This scent mixed with the aromatherapy… yet had a flavor all its own?

He couldn't help pulling out his aromatherapy manual to flip through, and sure enough found quite a few "experimental" recipes that used the bodily fluids of beast-type Pokémon to make aromatherapy.

It noted that these aromatherapies, due to their somewhat peculiar scents, were generally not accepted by the public, but in reality their effects were quite good.

"Effects, huh…"

All Baimu looked at the various effects written there and found they were medical aromatherapies of a different sort, mainly aimed at improving low moods and clearing away various negative emotions.

Some also had the side effect of stimulating Pokémon emotions, making them hot-blooded and restless.

Berserker potion?

He thought to himself, his hands itching slightly to make a bottle, but he looked at the surrounding environment and gave up helplessly.

Not long after.

The downpour outside the tree hollow was gradually lessening and trending toward stopping.

All Baimu waved at the four still-slumbering Galarian Meowth, placed a few Energy Cubes in front of them, and marveled at the fluffy texture he had just felt. Pokémon with thick fur really are great.

Too bad most Dragon-type Pokémon are the kind covered in scales all over.

He continued along the river toward Fortree City.

He hadn't expected that less than a kilometer later, the outline of a building faintly appeared at the very front of the dense forest.

"In this kind of deep mountain wilderness… a haunted house?"

He blinked. In the anime, all sorts of old mansions were practically everywhere, every one showing signs of being haunted, when in reality the ones causing mischief inside were basically all Ghost-type Pokémon.

Since his trip to the Spirit World, All Baimu's fear of various ghosts had greatly diminished—perhaps because he had seen that before absolute power, ghosts were useless too.

But as he got closer, All Baimu realized it was an inn.

He looked at the sign beside the front gate and instantly fell into reminiscence.

"Shuppet Inn… ah, that's the Shuppet from Forrest's!"

In the main anime, Forrest had once befriended a Shuppet that liked to scare people in an old mansion. After the mansion's owner discovered that the paranormal events in the house came from the Shuppet, he decisively decided to leverage the Shuppet's power to establish an inn.

This in front of him must be it.

But the Shuppet was taken away by Forrest, wasn't it…

Beep beep.

He pressed the buzzer at the iron gate, which immediately opened automatically, revealing neatly trimmed lawns on both sides and many shrubberies shaped like Shuppet. Just from this alone, one could tell this wasn't a haunted house.

Unless a Ghost-type Pokémon was interested in gardening, or what he was seeing was an illusion, which ghost Pokémon would bother trimming the lawn?

At the same time, the wooden door of the mansion at the end of his line of sight opened inward.

A woman in a small Western-style dress bowed to him, a Shuppet at her side.

"Welcome to Shuppet Inn. Do you have a reservation?"

"Uh, sorry, no."

All Baimu replied softly, staring at the Shuppet with a face full of puzzlement.

Didn't it leave with Forrest? Could it be a wild Shuppet Forrest caught later somewhere else?

Just as he was about to enter the hotel lobby, he spotted a second and then a third Shuppet, and only then realized that there were already more Shuppet inside the hotel.

"If you don't have a reservation…"

The woman in the Western-style dress looked troubled. "I'm very sorry, but all the rooms were booked in advance, so we can't just give one out."

"No worries. Does your hotel serve lunch? Lending me the kitchen would be fine too." All Baimu smiled. The outdoors were wet and damp, so he really couldn't light a stove; he'd originally planned to eat the emergency rations from his pack.

"Of course you can borrow the kitchen!"

The woman in the Western-style dress nodded immediately and led him to a spacious, bright kitchen. "Please feel free to use any of the ingredients here, as a small token of compensation for your inability to check in. If you have any problems, feel free to come find me. My name is Emily."

That generous?

All Baimu nodded in understanding. "Thank you very much, Miss Emily."

Although he'd gathered plenty of mushrooms and wild vegetables along the way, artificially cultivated fruits and vegetables were ultimately of a different quality.

Time to show off his skills and win over Dragapult!

He put on an apron and decided to make a meal moving enough to bring that fellow to tears, taking it from multiple angles to have it completely in hand!

A short while later.

An incredibly enticing aroma drifted out from the kitchen and lingered in the nearby corridor.

A passing Shuppet, lured by it, flew straight through the kitchen door, and immediately spotted a stranger standing before the stove, with two rather strange-looking Pokémon gathered around the wok, faces full of drooling anticipation.

"Hm? Drawn over by the smell?"

All Baimu turned his head, saw it was a Shuppet, and laughed. "Want me to share a bowl with you in a bit?"

"Bo!"

The Shuppet nodded frantically, then flew back outside.

Hm?

Gone?

…This guy isn't going off to find other companions to share with, is it?

All Baimu felt a twinge of unease, and soon that unease became reality. Shuppet of all sizes, big and small, poked out from the walls—over a dozen of them, filling the air above the kitchen with their fluttering figures.

Just as he thought.

He sighed.

The older Dragapult watched these Shuppet with great wariness, but the younger one was extremely carefree and rushed right over to play with them. The former didn't even manage to grab it in time, and stormed in with a furious expression to catch that rascal.

"A carefree little rascal…"

All Baimu observed this and thought to himself, but thankfully with its older sibling around, he could worry a little less.

The disappearance of the Shuppet quickly caught the attention of the person in charge, Miss Emily, who felt her way to the kitchen and was likewise soon seduced by the overwhelming aroma.

【By the way, currently the best app for audiobook listening is the Huan Yuan app. Install the latest version.】

"Oh? What a wonderful smell!"

One more!

He bared his teeth slightly and said to Emily, "Would you like a bowl too?"

"N-no, sorry for the trouble!"

Emily's nose twitched slightly, and the words on the tip of her tongue suddenly took a turn.

Half an hour later.

All Baimu, who had been forced to make lunch in super-doubled portions, looked at the cheerful Shuppet and at Miss Emily, her face full of pleasant surprise, and finally let his gaze fall on Dragapult.

This fellow had refused the food he offered a couple days ago—refused for about a minute, then the moment he turned his head, it snatched it up and ate it in a flash.

But its mouth clearly wasn't that dexterous, so when All Baimu turned back, he happened to see it chewing as fast as it could while food was spilling out.

The scene turned rather awkward for a moment.

Fortunately, Dragapult had a thick skin; although it felt a bit humiliated, it still chose to follow the purest call of appetite.

So right now one could see it sulkily burying its head in its food, the very picture of "mouth says no, body says yes."

Tsk tsk tsk.

Let's see how long you can hold out!

All Baimu was quite convinced of the allure of glowing cooking.

Suddenly.

He saw the horn on the head of a nearby Shuppet light up red, and immediately a wisp of red light flew out from Dragapult's body, continuously drilling into the Shuppet.

"This is a Shuppet's special ability—they feed on various negative emotions. Our hotel is popular precisely because it lets the Shuppet draw out the negative feelings of our guests… Your Pokémon seems to be in a very bad mood? What's wrong with it?"

Emily explained in time, then asked in confusion.

All Baimu replied, "I only just caught it not long ago. This fellow's a bit defiant, but it's not a big problem."

"I see…"