Chapter 397:
March 4th.
In the kitchen, berries of various styles floated in the air. Some were being peeled, while others needed to be diced into fine granules.
Beside them was a red-haired girl with an expression of intense concentration.
This was Latias transformed into "Kanon."
Under its control, the various berries gradually reached the final condensation step.
Reaching this point meant the Energy Cubes were basically complete. Latias breathed a sigh of relief.
Hayashi Kaede, standing at the kitchen door, couldn't help but praise with satisfaction.
"That's right, that's it! Your control over Confusion is already very proficient now!"
At the same time, Hayashi Kaede glanced at Latias's status panel.
[Pokémon: Latias]
[Gender: Female]
[Ability: Levitate]
[Type: Dragon, Psychic]
[Aptitude: Gold]
[IVs: ....]
[Strength: 49]
[Moves: Charm, Psycho Shift, Helping Hand, Recover, Confusion, Tailwind, Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, Dream Eater, Dragon Dance, Psyshock, Zen Headbutt.]
[Happiness: 60]
[Friendship: 79 (So awesome...)]
Its energy level had reached 49. Through recent training in Confusion control, it had also learned Psyshock and Zen Headbutt.
As expected of a Legendary Pokémon; even though it couldn't do much before, with a good teacher and some learning, it improved rapidly.
ヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ: "Woohoo~~"
Receiving the praise, Latias's face immediately blossomed into a radiant smile, though the sounds it made, combined with Kanon's appearance, made it seem a bit adorably silly.
"Alright, alright, that's enough for today."
Hayashi Kaede nodded, indicating its tasks were done for the day. From now on, it could choose to stay at the Breeding House or go home.
Sometimes Latias chose to return home, other times it chose to stay at the Breeding House.
It was quite curious.
Initially, it would blend in with the customers, watching what everyone bought. When it saw someone buying the Energy Cubes it made, it would giggle happily to itself.
Though it was unclear what was so funny about that.
Lately, it had taken a liking to invisibly watching the challenge matches from the sidelines.
Watching trainer after trainer bring their Pokémon to challenge Pidgeot, only to be knocked down.
It found it very amusing.
*They clearly can't win, yet they keep coming back. Isn't that just asking for a beating?*
*Those birds look really scary.*
Hayashi Kaede was quite supportive of this.
Because he knew that Latias and Latios would inevitably encounter the phantom thief sisters. By watching battles, it could learn a thing or two regardless.
If it could defeat them on its own when the time came, that would naturally be best.
...
March 5th.
Hayashi Kaede originally thought it would be another peaceful day.
Alolan Ninetales took Salamence, Dragonite, and Blaziken to train in a remote place. Hayashi Kaede specifically went to check and found they had gone to a small, uninhabited island in the sea. After confirming this, he stopped worrying.
Given their strength, as long as they didn't run into humans or other Legendary Pokémon, nothing major should happen.
Serperior, Milotic, Steenee, Tsareena, and Leafeon tended to their garden. Even Meowscarata started learning from them, applying Grassy Terrain to the berry orchard.
Gardevoir, Latias, and the little sister Indeedee held down the kitchen.
And then there were Skwovet, Ponyta, and the others, working in the berry orchard...
These days, they were becoming more and more proficient at their tasks.
Even that Furret had brought a few Sentret. It seemed Furret was the mother, and the Sentret were its children.
Among them was a shiny Sentret, which Hayashi Kaede found particularly endearing.
A shiny Sentret, after evolution, becomes pink!
That brief glimpse of the pink Furret during the competition was still fresh in his memory.
Although it was still brownish-yellow for now, it didn't stop Hayashi Kaede from imagining a future where a group of Furret with one pink in color would be jumping around the berry orchard.
But these were all routine matters.
What was rather peculiar today was... Mew, who popped up from who-knows-where. Seeing so many new Pokémon in the plantation, it did what it always did and transformed into another Pokémon.
This time, it transformed into a Combee...
Vespiquen had quietly produced five more children, and they all started working in the now blooming flower garden.
Hmm....
That meant even more honey could be collected.
Speaking of which, Hayashi Kaede almost didn't notice Mew disguised as a Combee this time.
Because they often flew to different places to gather nectar, and with the increased number of Combee, Hayashi Kaede naturally didn't count them one by one.
The clue was when he was walking back and forth in the plantation and noticed... it seemed like there were Combee that, from start to finish, never actually gathered any honey. They would just pretend to hover near flowers when they saw him, and once he left, they would immediately hide somewhere, giggling about who-knows-what.
He might not have noticed this once or twice, but after multiple occurrences, it was clearly abnormal.
Because Combee simply don't slack off.
They are diligent little bees.
He quickly guessed it was Mew, but there was something else strange about it.
He discovered it wasn't just one Combee slacking off... there were two Combee slacking off...
In the garden at this moment.
Hayashi Kaede pretended to pass through the Miltank shed, acting like he was going to milk them, then used the [Eye of Exploration] on the two slacking Combee.
But when he saw the results, he was stunned.
*'Victini?'*
Hayashi Kaede was taken aback.
Shouldn't Victini still be guarding the barrier at this point in time?
He watched the two "Combee" pretend to flit back and forth among the flowers but never return to the hive.
Although he didn't know why Victini was out now, seeing these two little guys like this, Hayashi Kaede quickly thought of a way to mess with them.
After putting away the MooMoo Milk, he returned to the garden, walked right up to them, took out a chair, and sat down.
He feigned a yawn. "Ah, I've worked all day, time for a break."
His gaze, however, was fixed on the group of Combee, and he sighed with feigned admiration. "So hardworking..."
After watching for a good while, he locked his eyes on the two of them~
"Hmm? Why are there two slacking off?"