Chapter 478: Companion? Best Friend?

Although they couldn't compete on the same stage,

having a roadside…on-board battle with Ursula was still doable. As long as he didn't use overly excessive moves that would damage the hull, no crew member would come to stop them.

"Sharpedo…"

She glanced at the big shark beside her, drowsy to the point of not being able to keep its eyes open, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately chose a different Pokémon—

a cute, adorable Jigglypuff.

"Puhuo~"

This one had once partnered with a Gabite at the time during the Sinnoh Lily of the Valley Conference, performing quite splendidly. Unfortunately, it never appeared in battle in the anime, so Baimu didn't know it well.

He deliberated for a few seconds, then sent out a shiny Milotic.

"Milo~"

The beautiful snake took the field. Its delicate low cry paired with its resplendent golden scales and smooth cream-colored body — under direct sunlight it seemed gilded with a layer of gold, as if it carried its own spotlight, involuntarily radiating an elegant and beautiful unique temperament, drawing the attention of other passengers and Pokémon near the deck.

A shiny Milotic!

Rarity drove them closer, and upon discovering that a battle seemed about to take place here, they simply began gathering around in twos and threes to watch.

The Sharpedo, which had been drowsy moments before, instantly woke up at the sight of Milotic. Its pale-gold dragon-pupil slowly dilated — not only was all sleepiness gone, it even took on a posture eager to give it a try.

Ursula and Jigglypuff also showed expressions of being dazzled.

"So beautiful…"

"Puhuo~"

Milotic's appearance and temperament were absolutely the kind to slay both men and women, but Sharpedo's reaction seemed especially strong.

—Aren't you female?

Baimu took a couple more looks at its dorsal fin, once again confirming that there was absolutely no notch on it that only males had.

Perhaps there was some other reason.

He didn't pay it much mind, raising his hand to have Milotic prepare for battle.

Although the battle area was located on the ferry's deck, it barely counted as a watery environment — places heavy with water vapor were clearly advantageous to Water-type Pokémon.

Of course, the bigger reason was wanting it to participate in proper outside battles and accumulate experience.

Pokémon that also came out of a "greenhouse" — Mawile had fought its way out from the old Iron Town with him, so even with attention split to handle the Contest, its combat power could still be guaranteed at a high level.

Milotic couldn't. It couldn't, and had no way to, survive in that harsh environment, so naturally it was a notch weaker in every aspect.

Therefore, fighting more street battles became the only way out.

"Coil."

Baimu didn't hold back — wild battles never cared about turn order, releasing a Pokémon meant the battle had begun.

"Milo~"

Milotic very naturally coiled itself into a large cream-colored lump. Its already bright and radiant eyes inexplicably gained a few more shades of sharp color, and its spirit instantly shifted from a languid beauty to a battle-ready valkyrie.

Orange-red light rose in response, and its Attack, Defense, and accuracy temporarily received a fairly considerable boost.

Meanwhile.

Across the way, after marveling, Ursula and Jigglypuff didn't just stand there stunned, and quickly responded.

"Hyper Voice!"

"Sii-yu—"

Accompanied by a low inhaling sound, the pink and tender Jigglypuff instantly transformed into an incomparably huge ball. With its mouth tightly pursed, it aimed at where Milotic was, and suddenly opened its mouth.

"Puding!

!"

Like a chorus of banshee shrieks, visible pale-white sound waves surged out from Jigglypuff's mouth — large enough to stuff half a person inside — turning into a gust of wind that blew forward. The surrounding onlookers and Pokémon all couldn't help but cover their ears.

What tremendous power!

By taking in a large amount of air to boost lung capacity and volume, even if it couldn't affect the amount of energy output, in the end it would definitely push the move's overall power up another level.

However, in order not to disperse too much of the move's power, Jigglypuff chose to tighten Hyper Voice's attack range, turning it from an obtuse angle into an acute one, which also gave Milotic room to nimbly dodge.

At that moment.

It was seen swiftly twisting its body to dodge to the side, and Baimu behind it dodged the Hyper Voice's energy impact to the left and right respectively.

The latter struck the steel railing at the edge of the ship, causing it to vibrate violently and hum loudly.

But that was all it amounted to.

"So fast… Coil shouldn't have a speed-boosting effect, right?" Ursula pressed her thin lips together — Milotic's evasive ability exceeded her expectations.

What was even more unexpected was that the latter's evasion didn't rely on Baimu's command at all — it judged the direction on its own and succeeded.

Disobedient?

No matter how she thought about it, that couldn't be it — it should be a Pokémon with more autonomy.

Ursula had seen many similar Pokémon, but their combat power was usually very extreme — either especially powerful, or especially weak.

The Milotic before her should belong to the powerful tier.

While she was thinking, Baimu had already given another command.

"Get closer, Hypnosis."

"Milo!"

Milotic instantly transformed into a swift, fierce swimming snake, reaching Jigglypuff's side with speed comparable to a charge.

"Bounce up with Smog!" Ursula hurriedly followed with a command.

Jigglypuff's reaction was also fast — very naturally it inhaled, held its breath, then jumped on the ground, and its round body immediately shot straight up into the sky like a rubber ball.

Unexpectedly, this jump actually carried it to ten meters high and still didn't stop, making it so that Milotic couldn't even land its Hypnosis.

Baimu looked up at Jigglypuff in the sky and thought, it's a good thing this wasn't a Jigglypuff that had devolved into a Clefairy — the latter in the Specials was a terrifying existence capable of carrying Blue through the sky.

It was bound to fall sooner or later.

Just as expected.

Sure enough. When Jigglypuff bounced to nearly twenty-plus meters in height, it finally came crashing down. Affected by the ferry's forward momentum, it wouldn't fall into the sea, but its landing spot would inevitably be offset.

At this moment, Ulala chose a move that All Baimu had anticipated.

"Topsy-Turvy Ball!"

Jigglypuff in midair began spinning at high speed, wrapped in a silver glow that made it look exactly like one of those dazzling silver disco balls that constantly flash mottled light.

The offset in direction was corrected, and its appearance looked quite intimidating too.

Milotic and All Baimu looked up at Jigglypuff's thunderous descent. Unlike their earlier evasive maneuvers, neither of them moved a muscle, as if waiting for something.

Ulala was stunned at first, but upon seeing the pale-blue water film light up on Milotic's body surface, she suddenly understood. "Jigglypuff, bounce away now!"

It was already too late.

"Water Ring."

All Baimu's voice caused the pale-blue water film to transform into several thick, deep-blue water rings. They overlapped one another, ultimately forming something resembling a slide. With Milotic actively rotating, the water slide caught the spiraling, plummeting Jigglypuff.

How could that possibly catch it?!

This thought flashed through many onlookers' minds, but for Milotic, who had long since mastered Water Ring to the point of endless variation, dissipating force and guiding momentum was no difficult feat.

Heavier and fiercer things than this, Water Ring had borne before too.

And Jigglypuff in its Topsy-Turvy Ball state kept spinning the whole way down. Before it could even react itself, its body had already reached the deck, landing right in front of Milotic.

"Hypnosis."

"Draining Kiss—"

All Baimu and Ulala issued commands in unison, but Milotic's reaction speed was faster than Jigglypuff's. Even if it was only faster by perhaps less than half a second, the pink-purple multi-colored wave of light had indeed enveloped it just as Jigglypuff was about to kiss the former's cheek.

"Puu... haa..."

Jigglypuff's eyes rolled back, and it fell into a deep sleep just like that.

Milotic lowered its beautiful, grand head, a pale-blue glow gathering in its mouth.

"That's enough! Let's stop here!"

Ulala raised her hand in surrender, then sighed with considerable regret.

Generally, when a street-corner battle reaches this point, it's pretty much over. If you don't want to make repeated trips to the Pokémon Center and turn your Pokémon into mummies wrapped head-to-toe in bandages, people usually won't fight to the point of testing whether a Pokémon can wake up before being knocked out by a move.

Besides, the medical conditions on the ship can only meet emergency standards.

However, with Jigglypuff down, Garchomp eagerly stepped forward, looking at Milotic with great interest.

"Kabu!"

"Miroh."

Milotic met its gaze, and its expression immediately grew serious.

Putting everything else aside, just in terms of presence, Jigglypuff couldn't even compare to this fellow. Even if it hadn't yet reached the level of its big brother Aggron, suppressing it was more than enough.

Ulala was taken aback, then looked at All Baimu and said: "One more match? My Garchomp is already ready, it absolutely won't let you down!"

She had absolute confidence in Garchomp.

"... Forget it, let's wait until we're on shore."

The latter gazed at the distant coastline; the island where Evening Water Town sat was growing steadily larger.

Seeing this, Ulala had no choice but to agree, and held back the eager Garchomp beside her.

"Kabu..."

Garchomp was deeply disappointed.

Milotic looked at it, thinking to itself: what are the odds of defeating this fellow? Fifty percent? Well, maybe only forty percent... or perhaps thirty.

The crowd of onlookers eating melons gradually dispersed. A few who recognized All Baimu quietly came over to ask for autographs and left, without making a fuss that would draw a huge crowd.

This made All Baimu quite grateful.

At Still Water Market, he had been swarmed to the point of developing trauma; the fans of the Contest were absolutely crazy.

——

Evening Water Town.

A seaside town that was quieter than All Baimu had expected, and more suited for sightseeing and tourism.

Of course.

Livability was another matter entirely.

Long-term exposure to wind and sun by the sea meant many people here looked rather dark-skinned; to put it nicely, they had a wheat complexion.

His Pokémon's love for the seaside was limited to the occasional visit for fun. Even Milotic didn't have deep attachment to the sea—it was freshwater faction, not one of those silly salted fish from the saltwater faction.

And the place everyone unanimously agreed was the most comfortable was, without a doubt, Green Shade Town.

That place had a magical quality that made you want to keep staying there. The Blissey that had overcome its inner demons there often wanted to stay an extra two days at the shop of its fully-charged big sister.

All Baimu had made a promise with them to go there after finishing the Glass Lighthouse Gym.

He decided to continue rounding out his strength in Green Shade Town, then go to the tournament and slay gods if gods blocked the way, slay Buddhas if Buddhas blocked the way.

Before long.

All Baimu and Ulala came out of the Pokémon Center together, booked separate rooms at the best nearby inn, politely parted ways, and began organizing their belongings.

Mainly it was arranging the plush toy formation for Mawile—without the plush toy formation, it wasn't comfortable even lying down watching its phone and TV.

Only afterward did he pull out the not-so-fresh ingredients from his backpack to replace them, and clean the things that had gotten dirty from various factors on the road and couldn't be cleaned in a short time.

With Blissey's help, he was freed from his tasks in just ten minutes.

"Thanks! Home helper extraordinaire!"

All Baimu rubbed the tuft of fur standing up on Blissey's head, and the latter beamed with joy.

He turned and went to the master bedroom.

"The seaside…"

He drew the curtains; the blazing sun outside was getting harsher and harsher.

Heaven knows what's going on — the past few days the sunlight has been especially vicious, as if the season were drawing near to winter and the "autumn tiger" had decided to come out and bounce around for a bit.

If we want a slightly more grounded explanation, aside from the global climate change topic even the Pokémon world is talking about, the fact that Groudon is located near this stretch of sea is also a perfectly good answer.

Have they finally walked all the way from the Kalos region back to the Hoenn region?

That was rough.

The thought that in another two days, the Groudon that had only just fallen asleep would be woken up again to fight over the Legendary titans made All Baimu want to burst out laughing… no, that's not right — it made him so sad he nearly cried.

Unless the Groudon that Hu Pa summoned was also a second one, like Rayquaza.

All Baimu hadn't had any contact with them, so he couldn't judge.

Evening.

Ulala, who had just returned from registering at the Evening Water venue, invited him to dinner together. He had been about to refuse outright, but then recalled how things had gone with Hau back in Kala'e City, and nodded in agreement.

During the meal, All Baimu brought up the matter of Garchomp's somewhat strange attitude toward Milotic.

Ulala heard this and smiled, a mix of embarrassment and pride.

"It's looking for a partner. It just took a fancy to the shiny Milotic's looks and wants to know how strong it really is in battle."

"…Partner? My Milotic is female!"

"A-A partner that has nothing to do with breeding — strictly speaking, more like a friend, but definitely not the same thing." As she said this, her face flushed slightly, almost the same shade as her pink spiral twin-tails.

Could it be… besties?

All Baimu muttered to himself. As long as his Pokémon agreed to it themselves and weren't doing anything that harmed themselves, he had no objection to his Pokémon having an extra partner or whatever.

【The magistrate not only doesn't set fire to the house, he encourages the common folk to light lamps!】

Anyway, that's the general idea.

So.

After getting Milotic's consent, and borrowing the friendship between the two trainers, Garchomp and it began their first round of private exchange.

Half play, half battle.

After a great clashing and banging exchange, Garchomp was indeed the stronger one and held the upper hand, but unfortunately Milotic also had a certain mastery over ice, so for the moment both sides seemed unable to do much to each other.

The draw successfully advanced the relationship between the two.

Unfortunately, due to All Baimu's personal circumstances, Milotic had no choice but to temporarily part ways with its newly made bestie—

Miss Xijiana had arrived.

She didn't look as wild as she came across in the game — she could wear an ordinary T-shirt and jeans, and could find a café to slowly sip coffee while waiting for someone.

Paired with Gu Niu Niu, it actually gave All Baimu, who was watching from outside the window, a sense of meeting up with an urban white-collar worker.

"Sorry I'm late."

He sat down across from Miss Xijiana.

"Not late." Miss Xijiana said with a smile: "But are you prepared? Prepared for the trial to begin. I must warn you, the trial carries a certain degree of danger — you need to be careful."

Wouldn't normal logic dictate that you point out the danger so he'd back out on his own?

Why is there only a warning and no option to refuse?

All Baimu took a sip of tea and asked, knowing full well the answer: "The trial location is Evening Water Town?"

"Of course not. The trial location is at our People of the Meteor's sacred ground, the great miracle built for the Dragon God Rayquaza." Miss Xijiana had no intention of keeping him in suspense at all, and said outright:

"Sky Pillar. A good place."