"I knew it," Ron muttered. Thinking about the camping trip after returning from Kalos, he suddenly started getting a headache.
"Magearna?"
"It's nothing." Ron waved his hand, then confirmed the quantities of various materials, making preparations for the trip to Kalos.
Time flashed forward to Summer 2.
On Summer 1, as usual, everyone on the farm collectively planted the summer seeds. Since there was nothing else to do, even Serena and Bonnie helped out quite a bit. In short, the work in Pelican Town was temporarily wrapped up. Ron brought the hastily crafted Tea Saplings and led Serena and the others to the beach.
Worth mentioning is that, with Serena's company, the Rattata finally gave itself a resounding name—Ribbon.
As for the origin of the name, Ron didn't ask. But as long as it wasn't a long and awkward name, Ron accepted it with no issues.
Ribbon touched the newly made butterfly hair clip on its head, lying in Ron's arms with an expectant look, waiting for Ron to take it to Kalos for a massive shopping spree.
Ron glanced at the Wizard, who was already on the boat early, then waved at Penny, who had come to see them off.
"Bye-bye!" Penny smiled and waved. "Hurry up and set off. See you next time!"
Since the return date wasn't confirmed, Ron just replied, "See you next time."
While waiting for everyone to say goodbye to their respective families, Serena and Bonnie boarded the boat first.
As soon as they got on, the two saw the Wizard sitting inside the cabin, looking a bit awkward.
"Hello... I am—"
"A magician!" Bonnie blurted out, cutting him off. "You must be a magician!"
"You could say that." The Wizard smiled. Seeing that the two had no reservations, he introduced himself: "I am Rasmodius. You can also call me the Wizard; everyone else does."
"The Wizard, huh." Bonnie immediately sat down next to him. "Do you know any magic?"
"Magic?"
The Wizard thought for a moment and took out his staff. Immediately, a fireball appeared in his palm.
Serena instantly widened her eyes. "Can humans use fireballs too?"
"Fireballs?" The Wizard pondered for a moment, realizing Serena was referring to Pokémon moves. He couldn't help but say, "It's still quite different from Pokémon moves. How should I put it... this is achieved through arcane energy, which is different from the energy Pokémon use to execute moves."
However, he hadn't seriously studied the exact differences yet, which was why around this time last year he had asked Ron to get him a Beldum. Since it wasn't urgent, he hadn't rushed him, and Ron had simply forgotten.
"I don't understand at all." Bonnie tried to reach out and touch the fireball, but the Wizard quickly blocked her.
Not quite sure how to interact with these two unfamiliar little girls, the Wizard awkwardly averted his gaze and explained sheepishly, "This is real fire; it will burn you."
"Oh."
Looking through the window and seeing that Ron and the others still hadn't boarded, the Wizard took a deep breath. Simultaneously regretting that he should have just gone to Kalos by himself, he waved his staff outward.
Outside the boat, Emily was hugging Haley tightly. Haley couldn't help but pat Emily's shoulder. "Alright, alright, we'll probably be back in a few days anyway."
"Hopefully not," Ron couldn't help but interject.
Just to be safe, Ron had also asked the Wizard to modify the Ice Rod so they could carry it with them, allowing them to escape immediately if they encountered danger.
Besides that, to avoid a situation where they had to use a warp totem to flee back to the farm again, the Frog Egg trinket was also modified. Essentially, without even needing to take the Frog Egg out, a frog would now automatically follow beside Abigail.
"If you're short on money or need anything, contact me anytime," Emily said, glancing to the side and seeing that Caroline was in the exact same worried state as her right now.
"Alright, alright, I know. I'll take care of myself," Abigail said, just about to say a bit more to reassure Caroline, when suddenly, with a flash of light, the group that was on the beach inexplicably found themselves sitting inside the boat.
"Huh?" Haley glanced at Emily on the shore, who was struggling to keep her balance after she suddenly vanished. Just as Haley was about to say something, the Wizard beside her spoke up: "Set sail."
"Oh, oh, right." Ron nodded and started the boat.
"Are you... the Wizard?" Abigail stared at the Wizard for a while and couldn't help but ask. "The one who supposedly put some kind of barrier over Pelican Town?"
While steering the boat and listening to the Wizard answer everyone's bizarre questions, Ron couldn't help but reach out and let Indeedee out of its Poké Ball.
"Indeedee~"
Indeedee makes its grand entrance!
Indeedee chimed, bowing to everyone.
Fearing that Indeedee might make any unnecessary moves, Ron had returned it to its Poké Ball early on. Now that it was let out, Indeedee first looked around at the faces of the people on the boat before turning its head to glance outside.
"Indeedee! Indeedee!"
We're really out here! We're really going to Kalos! Yay!
It then noticed the Wizard sitting in the corner with a pained expression. After stepping forward and chiming an "Indee," it sat down next to him.
"Long time no see," the Wizard said softly.
Having no way to deal with these inquisitive girls, the Wizard shifted his attention to Indeedee.
Since Indeedee had stayed at the Wizard's Tower for three days previously, the Wizard still had a certain fondness for it, so he reached out and patted Indeedee's head.
"Indeedee~"
"I heard you caused Ron quite a bit of trouble," the Wizard continued.
"Indeedee!" Pure fabrication! Slander!
Indeedee was clearly doing great deeds!
Indeedee shook its head in disagreement.
The Wizard then looked up and asked Ron, "Why are you bringing Indeedee?"
"I'm planning to conduct some business over there," Ron replied.
Having just an Indeedee was useless, but coupled with Ron's ability to hear Pokémon's inner thoughts, it became very useful.
"In, indeedee."
Indeedee put its hands on its hips, showing that it was indeed super useful.
Serena's attention, however, remained on the Wizard. Although she didn't know much about him, because she had read quite a few related books while helping Ribbon pick a name, she did have a bit of an understanding of so-called arcane energy. Coupled with the history of this country regarding magic, she couldn't help but feel a deep respect for this stranger.
Even though he looked a bit unkempt on the outside and wasn't very good at socializing.
He seemingly possessed power beyond imagination.
"Indeedee, in." Indeedee chimed for a while, but upon realizing that Meowth wasn't here to translate for it, it helplessly sat back down in its chair.
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