"Ah, Fish Casserole." Joy smiled gently at Jodi. "It feels like not long after I arrived in Pelican Town last year, I also came over to your place for Fish Casserole."
"Yeah, a year has gone by in a flash." Jodi said, setting the Fish Casserole on the table.
The kids, who had been staring intently at the Pokémon Egg just a moment ago, all crowded over at once.
"Wow, it smells so good, really good." Leo sniffed and said, "Can fish actually smell like this?"
Leo's experience with cooking fish was currently limited to Linus's Sashimi and roasted fish. Of course, the original, unseasoned taste wasn't bad either, but it ultimately couldn't compare to this mouth-watering aroma.
"Give it a try." Jodi stroked Leo's head with a bit of motherly affection.
Jodi had heard a bit about this child's past, and since she had a boy just a bit younger than him at home, just imagining Leo wandering alone on that island made her heartache indescribably. If her family wasn't temporarily unable to support raising another boy, and if Leo didn't prefer living in the wild with Linus, Jodi really would have considered adopting him.
The kids gathered around the Fish Casserole and feasted heartily.
Not far away, the egg in the incubator suddenly wobbled at some point. Jodi glanced at the egg, saw nothing unusual, said goodbye to Joy, and turned to leave.
Time flashed forward to the afternoon.
Jodi's family, along with the Pokémon Egg, arrived punctually at the farm entrance.
Indeedee enthusiastically took the egg to the Coop, asking the Fletchinder to help incubate it, and then led the four of them into the cabin to sit down.
Since Magearna had taken over everything on the farm, all that was left for Indeedee was taking care of guests and cooking. Fortunately, Magearna was completely useless at cooking, which gave Indeedee the opportunity to look after everyone.
Indeedee chimed "Indeedee, indeedee" as it took out the ingredients and prepared dinner alongside Jodi.
It was a rare group dinner, and since Jodi's cooking wasn't something they could normally enjoy, Ron had even specially notified Team Rocket over on the Fern Islands.
Meowth squatted next to Jodi, helping to prep the Largemouth Bass that Sailor had caught.
"Is it really that delicious, meow?" Meowth turned its head and asked Sailor. "Better than Ron's cooking, meow?"
Jodi was still busy at the stove. Hearing this, she couldn't help but smile shyly. "If it's Fish Casserole, I have a little bit of confidence."
The rest of her cooking wasn't really comparable, which was something Jodi envied. What woman, especially one busy with household chores year-round, wouldn't yearn for a partner with excellent culinary skills? To be honest, among all the tedious household chores, cooking was definitely at the top of the list of troubles. You not only had to figure out everyone's tastes but also consider nutritional balance so the kids wouldn't be malnourished.
Worrying about what dishes to make for everyone every day was stressful enough for Jodi, especially before the farm was up and running. That meager salary could only buy a tiny amount of ingredients; trying to make something fancy out of those was harder than reaching the sky.
"Indeedee, In."
Indeedee nodded in somewhat agreement. If it couldn't hear everyone's inner thoughts, and if the farm's ingredients weren't so abundant, this would be enough to make Indeedee tear its hair out too.
Thinking this, it called out to Meowth, who was trying to translate: "Indeed."
No need to translate this one!
Eavesdropping on people's inner thoughts wasn't something to be made public!
"Oh, okay, meow."
Meowth looked up, glanced at Jessie, who was itching to step in next to Jodi, and continued, "It's probably best not to let Jessie interfere, meow."
"What did you say?"
"What Meowth means is... it would be better for Jessie to take the little kid out to play, meow." Meowth gave an awkward smile.
Hearing this, Jessie looked over at Vincent, who was eager to explore the farm. After a moment, she compromised and stepped forward to take Vincent's hand. "Then how about I show you around the farm?"
"Really? Thank you, big sister!" Vincent looked at Jessie excitedly.
Jessie nodded, greeted Ron, and led Vincent out of the cabin.
After walking Vincent around the farm, Jessie finally stopped him in front of the Coop. She pointed at it uncertainly and asked, "Do you want to see this?"
Jessie really didn't know what was so interesting about a Coop. Her memories of cleaning the Coop before were still fresh in her mind. Honestly, her job on the Fern Islands was way easier in comparison. She couldn't understand at all why Shane would be willing to spend all day in that Coop, holding chickens with an excited look on his face.
"Uh-huh!" Vincent happily shared with Jessie. "I heard there's a Fletchinder in here with the Flame Body ability! Indeedee already put our family's Pokémon Egg in there to incubate!"
"A Pokémon Egg, huh." Hearing this, Jessie pushed open the Coop door.
As soon as the door opened, a strange light suddenly flashed inside.
Jessie held Vincent's hand as they stared blankly at the cracking egg inside, frozen in place.
"Is-Is it hatching?" Vincent widened his eyes, staring intently at the egg.
"Seems like it—" Jessie said, then asked, "Come to think of it, what Pokémon's egg is that?"
"I don't know! Mommy found it!" Vincent answered Jessie while keeping his eyes glued to the egg.
In the next instant, the light flashed, and a Pokémon appeared in the Coop.
Vincent stared at it blankly.
"It's a Paras."
Having seen Pokémon like Magearna and Shaymin on the farm, and seeing how even the ordinary Rattata possessed unimaginable abilities, Jessie had thought this egg would hatch into some never-before-seen Pokémon. Seeing that it was just an ordinary Paras—one that would faint immediately if attacked—Jessie couldn't quite describe her feelings at the moment.
"It's called Paras?" Vincent excitedly stepped forward and scooped Paras up. "Yay! I have a Pokémon! It's called Paras!"
"Paras?" Paras huddled in Vincent's arms, then after a moment, narrowed its eyes. "Paras!"
Meanwhile, in the cabin.
Jodi had just finished putting all the Fish Casserole on the stove when she heard Vincent's voice coming from outside.
"It hatched! It hatched!"
"What did he say?" Jodi asked to confirm.
"I think the Pokémon hatched?" Sam paused, mid-sip of his juice.
The next second, the cabin door flew open, and Vincent rushed in excitedly, holding the Paras.
"Look! This is Paras! It's our family's Pokémon!"
Jodi's gaze fell on Paras's scorpion-like legs. After a long while, she thought with a hint of disappointment: 'It doesn't have hands…'
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