Mira returned right on time for lunch, and both she and Scizor looked completely exhausted.
The only way to thoroughly explore the island was on foot. If they flew around, they could circle the entire island in ten or twenty minutes, making it seem tiny. Walking across it was a completely different story.
Scizor had spent the morning cutting a path through the dense Overgrow forest, while Gengar searched for groups of Pokémon living nearby.
Mira's map was covered in countless markings, recording every Pokémon they had discovered in the areas they'd explored. She felt like she was doing the same kind of fieldwork as the Professors who studied Pokémon.
Chansey had already prepared lunch for them. Scizor and Gengar immediately abandoned Mira and started eating.
Mira handed her notebook to Luther, took the food Mai offered her, and said while eating, "This is as far as we've explored so far. To cover the entire island properly, it'll probably take more than a month. From now on, I'll have to take a tent with me and stay wherever I finish exploring for the day."
Mira nearly choked on her food and started looking around for some water. Joy promptly handed her the canteen beside her.
After taking a drink and recovering, Mira continued, "Going back and forth like this makes it easy to miss things. Just have a Flying-type Pokémon bring me supplies whenever I need them."
Luther looked over the Data Mira had recorded by the light from Courtney's fire and said, "It won't take anywhere near a month. You can finish in half a month."
He pointed toward the large area in the center of the island. "There's no need to investigate this part in such detail. Our main settlement will be around the outskirts of the island. We're only exploring the center to prepare for the Pokémon League's infrastructure."
That was also a requirement from the Pokémon League. If they discovered a particularly aggressive or powerful Totem Pokémon in an area, they would need to avoid it. Otherwise, the Pokémon might treat any newly built facilities as toys and destroy them.
"You're the Island Lord. You say how it's done."
With her workload suddenly cut in half, Mira was naturally more than happy.
Joy and Mai were having a great time chatting. One was a Pokémon doctor, while the other was determined to become an excellent Breeder, so they had plenty of common ground.
By now, they'd even started talking about teaching each other the skills they were best at during their free time.
Whimsicott and the Pokémon under her protection were still completely dazed. Ever since they entered the temporary settlement, they had been overwhelmed by one surprise after another.
As soon as they arrived, a huge silver-white bird came wandering over with curiosity written all over her face.
Before she could even get close to the Pokémon behind Whimsicott, Houndoom called out, "Silver!" and hooked Silver around the neck with his tail, pulling her back.
He could already tell that Whimsicott and the others were nervous. Having Silver approach them and act overly friendly would only make things worse.
Whimsicott couldn't tell what kind of Pokémon Silver was, but instinctively, she could sense that Silver was extremely powerful.
This was the first time Whimsicott had ever been this close to a place where humans lived, and almost everything she saw was completely new to her.
Chansey and Mai were busy cooking. Silver, Houndoom, and Milcery were playing together. Chikorita and Joltik were discussing going fishing by the sea tomorrow. Slowpoke and Pachirisu were dozing off, while Eevee took advantage of everyone's distraction to climb onto the table and sneak some food.
Mai's Aggron gave Whimsicott an especially big shock.
Aggron walked up to a boulder nearly half his height, smashed it with a powerful punch, dug out some faintly glowing metal fragments, and happily started chewing on them.
Whimsicott felt as though she had wandered into a strange new world. Her mind kept racing as she tried to process everything her eyes were seeing.
Altaria soon returned with Espurr and Berry. Whimsicott and the other Pokémon had been preparing to eat some berries, but suddenly a Feeding Bowl appeared in front of them, filled with delicious-smelling food.
It smelled exactly like the food Jumpluff had eaten that afternoon!
Whimsicott glanced between the berries and the food prepared by Berry and Mai.
In the end, she chose Mai's food.
Seeing Whimsicott eating so happily that her eyes had narrowed into little slits, Luther couldn't help praising Mai.
This was how you quietly made Whimsicott feel at home, until bringing her into his team became the most natural thing in the world!
Whimsicott wolfed down everything in her Feeding Bowl in no time. Seeing that Petilil and the others were still eating, she had nothing else to do, so she began wandering around the settlement.
Her attention was soon caught by a small mountain.
Whimsicott looked up at the pile of food, which was already a head taller than she was and looked dangerously close to collapsing. Then she noticed the pair of rabbit ears sticking out from the top.
Unable to resist, she walked around to the side to get a better look.
Azumarill was attacking the food with frightening enthusiasm. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Whimsicott's mouth hanging open in a perfect O.
Thinking Whimsicott wanted some, Azumarill casually grabbed a handful and, with lightning-fast speed, stuffed it straight into Whimsicott's mouth.
"Don't mention it," Azumarill said magnanimously.
Whimsicott's cheeks were stuffed full. She loved food too much to let any of it go to waste, so she desperately chewed with her mouth tightly closed, trying not to spill a single bite.
In the blink of an eye, Azumarill had polished off everything in front of her. She immediately dropped to the ground and started searching for the pieces of food that had rolled away, popping them into her mouth.
Whimsicott was deeply moved. She thought Azumarill was another Pokémon who truly valued food.
That impression lasted until she saw Azumarill take her Feeding Bowl over to Mai and get another serving.
Only then did Whimsicott realize that Azumarill hadn't been saving food at all.
She simply hadn't eaten enough.
Darkrai had a rather unusual way of eating. Only his head was visible, while the rest of his body remained buried in the shadows. Even from a distance, Whimsicott couldn't help feeling intimidated by him.
Milcery grabbed a piece of Pokémon food and flung it at Chikorita.
Whimsicott immediately got angry. She was just about to teach Milcery that wasting food was wrong when Chikorita suddenly rolled over and caught the food with the leaf on her head. With a casual Vine Whip, she sent another piece flying back at Milcery.
Milcery copied Chikorita. She performed a backward roll, landed on her back, opened her mouth, and let the piece of food drop perfectly inside.
The Pokémon nearby were already used to these two goofballs turning even mealtime into an elaborate performance.
Luther and Mai practically spoiled them rotten, just like parents who couldn't bear to say no to their children.
The other Pokémon protected them just as fiercely. As long as they weren't causing too much trouble, everyone simply let them do whatever they wanted.
Whimsicott was sweating.
The Pokémon here were seriously weird. Was there really not a single normal one among them?
Darkrai noticed every expression on Whimsicott's face.
He understood that feeling.
When he had first joined Luther's team, he had thought Marill was some kind of bizarre creature.
He still thought so, actually.
There were simply too many things he couldn't understand or make sense of. A wild Pokémon couldn't completely change the way it saw humans and other Pokémon overnight.
Mira finished her meal and, out of the corner of her eye, noticed someone nearby glaring resentfully at Luther.
"Luther, your Jumpluff isn't eating," Mira reminded him.
Sure enough, Jumpluff hadn't touched her Feeding Bowl at all.
Luther sat down beside her and found her puffing out her cheeks while staring straight at him.
Luther smiled.
So she was still holding a grudge over what happened that afternoon.
"Come on, don't be mad. I'm sorry, okay? I'll feed you myself. How about that?"
Jumpluff gave a disgruntled little huff and turned her head away, though she kept sneaking glances at Luther from the corner of her eye.
Luther turned her around to face him and waved a piece of food in front of her face.
"If you don't eat it... I'll just go feed Whimsicott instead."
Jumpluff immediately perked up and jumped toward her Feeding Bowl, only for Luther to catch her and hold her back.
With no other choice, Jumpluff obediently opened her mouth.
"Ah~~"
As she enjoyed both the food and Luther's gentle pats, Jumpluff's anger finally faded away.
(End of Chapter)
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