'You're saying you didn't steal anything. It dropped the berry itself, and you just picked it up?' Teacher A looked at Growlithe with clear skepticism.
Growlithe nodded constantly, its eyes brimming with honesty and innocence.
Beside it, the anxious Bidoof stood upright, barely half as tall as the still-standing Growlithe. Stretching out its paws, it indignantly accused.
"Bidoof! Bidoof! Bidoof!"
Unown A nodded as if it understood every word. Then it pointed at Growlithe and scolded, 'It was just sunbathing and eating a berry on the grass, and you chased it. If that's not harassment, what is? Look at the other Pokémon. What are they doing? And what about you?'
Growlithe trembled at the raised voice and cautiously peeked over.
Corviknight was sparring with Drakloak. Bewear clumsily repeated a fusion move again and again. Vibrava lay there enduring blows as part of its endurance training. Even the usually mischievous Haunter floated midair, grinning as it toyed with two constantly shifting Shadow Balls.
Growlithe stared at Haunter, feeling utterly betrayed.
'What are you looking at?' Unown A's tone sharpened.
Growlithe lowered its head at once, not daring to make a sound.
Just then, Shiro walked over and rubbed the dog's head soothingly. "It's okay, Growlithe. Just carry these Pokéblocks to Bidoof and apologize…"
He opened his palm, revealing more than a dozen Normal-type Pokéblocks.
Growlithe instinctively stuffed them all into its mouth, barely resisting the urge to swallow them whole, then turned toward Bidoof.
Startled, Bidoof stumbled backward. Only after spotting Shiro behind Growlithe, and Unown A floating overhead, did it stop retreating, though its paws remained raised, ready to bolt.
"Growl~"
Growlithe spat the Pokéblocks onto the ground in front of Bidoof and gave a soft call.
Bidoof's eyes widened. It stepped forward cautiously, testing the situation, then quickly grabbed one block and stuffed it into its mouth.
"Bidoof!"
A warm current spread from its mouth throughout its body, as if it had just soaked in a hot spring. Even the once-terrifying big dog now seemed… oddly pleasant.
Nodding repeatedly in thanks, Bidoof bent down and scooped up the remaining Pokéblocks, cramming them into its cheeks like a squirrel hoarding pinecones. With its cheeks puffed out, it dashed into the grass and disappeared.
Growlithe craned its neck, tempted to chase again, only to be stopped just in time by Unown A.
'Training! Training!' Unown A radiated anger. 'I told you to look at the other Pokémon! How can you—'
"Growl!"
Growlithe's fur stood on end. Not waiting to be yelled at, it bolted back to the training group and immediately began practicing fusion moves.
Unown A let out a sigh at the dog's behavior.
Watching from the side, Shiro chuckled and went back to training as well.
* * *
A few hours later, completely exhausted, Shiro lay sprawled on the lawn in a starfish position.
Sluurp!
A tongue slid across his face again.
He turned his head to see Growlithe.
"Growl!"
Growlithe barked energetically, its wet black nose pressing against Shiro's.
'It's dinner time.' Unown A glanced at the darkening sky. 'That's enough training for today. Eat first. We'll deal with the rest tomorrow.'
With that, it used psychic power to control the Poké Balls at Shiro's waist, recalling the gathered Pokémon one by one before teleporting Shiro back to his bedroom.
Half an hour later, mostly recovered, Shiro washed his face, yawned, prepared Pokéblocks, and then headed to the cafeteria for dinner.
* * *
Days passed in the blink of an eye, though Shiro could no longer remember exactly how many.
Life became extremely regular after arriving at Rowan's institute. With nothing pressing to worry about, time seemed to slip by unnoticed. Rowan stayed in the lab every day, while his assistant, Rei, occasionally came to check whether Shiro was comfortable or needed anything.
Dale and Bria had blended in well, assisting Rowan with research daily. Since they were publicly known as Shiro's assistants, the institute's researchers did not look down on them.
Not long ago, however, Dale had approached Shiro to say that someone wanted to transfer under him. Shiro refused without hesitation.
It was natural for researchers to seek better opportunities. People always aimed higher. But what he needed now was a loyal team, not individuals constantly thinking about switching to another professor.
Besides, if he ever skimmed a little from future research funds and someone exposed it, that would be the end.
"I still need to be careful," Shiro muttered while sitting on the grass.
He was at the northern edge of the green park area, beside the lake bordering the Water-type zone.
Not far away, Feebas floated in the water, blowing bubbles.
[Beauty: 168/255]
No one had played with it here. The lake once held some semi-wild Water-type Pokémon, but most had been scared off by Feebas's enormous size, likely mistaking it for a fierce predator.
Water Pokémon were difficult to approach, but land Pokémon were different.
The Bidoof group had grown close to Growlithe lately, having realized the silly dog meant no harm and often brought tasty food.
Haunter, on the other hand, felt miserable.
Its best buddy had been sticking with the Bidoof and no longer chased it around like before.
"Haunt~"
Haunter floated in the air, staring at Growlithe sitting among the Bidoof by the lake. Black smoke rose from its ghostly body as it rolled back and forth midair with puffed cheeks, looking as though it had swallowed two pounds of lemons.
Drakloak, lying on the grassy slope under the sun, opened one eye to glance at the gloomy companion before turning over and going back to sleep.
Nearby, Corviknight and Bewear practiced their fusion move together. They had already made solid progress and could execute it smoothly in battle.
The surrounding Pokémon had learned to avoid their training area; after the first few days of fear, they no longer panicked at the shockwaves.
In fact, with enough Pokéblocks, even these semi-wild Pokémon warmed up quickly. Shiro had built decent relationships with nearby Pokémon such as Marill and Turtwig.
Each day here followed a simple rhythm. Train. Rest. Train. Rest.
Shiro felt his psychic power had quietly improved, perhaps even enough to read ordinary people's thoughts now, though he had not tested it.
At that moment, Unown A popped out and said calmly, 'I can check your current body data, including physical strength and psychic power. We can measure it against the average Pokémon scale.'
It was the first time he had heard of this, but it made sense. Humans were technically a type of Pokémon. Having stats sounded reasonable.
"Alright."
Shiro agreed immediately.
After scanning him with psychic power, Unown A displayed an information panel.
[Name: Shiro
Type: Fighting/Psychic
Level: Fighting (39), Psychic (18)]
Ability: Unknown
Moves: None
Mental State: Lazy]
"Hmm?"
Shiro stared at it for a long time. The types and levels were expected and seemed fair.
His physical training had reached a bottleneck; no matter how he trained, improvement came slowly. His Fighting level was stuck just below Gym-level and like Pokémon, he would either need intense battles to break through or grind forward gradually with resources.
His Psychic level had only begun rising recently, so being in the teens made sense.
But lazy mental state?
Resting for a bit meant lazy?
Unown A nodded seriously. 'Do you know what your most important task is right now?'
"What is it?" he asked.
Unown A jumped onto his forehead and said, 'Mesprit! It hasn't come out to play for days. That must be your fault. You need to make Mesprit happy!'
"My fault?"
Shiro felt wrongly accused. Mesprit could come out if it wanted. Or sleep if it didn't. What did that have to do with him?
Still, Unown A had a point. He needed to stay on good terms with Mesprit.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "So what should I do?"
Unown A's single eye lit up. 'It's boring here! Let's go shopping! A modern human city is lively and fun!'
Shiro nearly asked why it hadn't suggested that back in Galar but stopped himself. Back then, things had been too dangerous, and Galar's towns were more traditional than lively modern cities.
"Then we need to check the map first and plan it properly," he said as he stood up and called his Pokémon.
**
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