Gently rocking in the rocking chair, the sky above the Breeding House had turned an incredibly clear blue, and the sunlight was just right, slowly drifting toward the west.
Lucas sniffed lightly. The entire yard was filled with the damp, earthy scent of melted snow soaking into the soil, along with the crisp breath of spring's arrival.
The grass was lush and green, and the large tree with two swings—one big and one small—was beginning to sprout new buds. The Aipoms had started returning to their orchard, with a few more little ones added to their numbers.
Kricketot and Kricketune, detesting the damp grass, had all gathered on the stone-paved path, playing their long-awaited melodies.
The Pachirisus began clearing out the boxes under the trees, sweeping out the dead leaves and twigs before using their large, fluffy tails to dust the insides. Then, they carefully placed the gifts they had brought from the forest inside, looking forward to tomorrow morning when a human would come to collect them and make them some delicious treats. That way, they could sit in the trees, munching on tasty food while listening to the Kricketunes sing and watching the Buneary or Lopunny dance.
Staraptor could finally spread its wings and soar freely through the sky, playfully shaping the fluffy white clouds into the forms of the Breeding House's Pokémon.
Large groups of Drifloon and Driflim also began to appear in the sky, drifting dazedly around the airspace of the Breeding House.
Listening to the lively chatter of the Pokémon around him, smelling the spring breeze filling the yard, basking in the afternoon sun, and stroking the tail of the Pachirisu in his arms, Lucas couldn't help but yawn and close his eyes once more.
Contagious as it was, Lucas's yawn set off Mime Jr. and Pachirisu, who both yawned in turn. After rubbing its small eyes, Mime Jr. lay flat on Lucas's chest, found a comfortable position, and closed its eyes.
Pachirisu wanted to break free, but Lucas's large hand held it tightly in his embrace. After struggling for a bit and finding it couldn't escape, it also closed its eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Feeling something patting his face, which tickled enough to make him open his eyes, Lucas saw that the sky had already grown dark. A beautiful fox head had suddenly appeared in his line of sight.
Ninetales looked at Lucas, whom she had just woken up, and gave a gentle cry.
"Xiu."
Time to eat.
Lucas glanced at the sky; it was already dark.
Is it already this late?
Lucas lay there, dazed.
"Xiu."
Eat first.
Ninetales nudged Lucas with her head. This movement also woke Mime Jr. and Pachirisu, who were still lying in Lucas's arms. Mime Jr. sat up and rubbed its eyes.
"Nini?"
Why is it dark already?
Feeling the damp spot on his chest, Lucas pinched its little nose. "Sleepyhead."
"Nini."
You slept until now too, Lucas, yet you're calling me that.
"Pa-pa?"
Pachirisu was still in a daze, looking adorable.
How did it get dark so fast?
Lucas flicked its forehead. "You're a sleepyhead too."
Then he lifted Pachirisu up, buried his face in its belly, and took a deep breath.
Sure enough, it was that exact Pachirisu!
What a familiar feeling!
Pachirisu: Mama!—
(Mama!)
Before Pachirisu could finish its sentence, Lucas scooped it up.
Carrying Mime Jr. in one arm and Pachirisu in the other, Lucas walked over to the dining table. By now, Shauna, Mr. and Mrs. Fujino, Gothitelle, Gengar, and Darkrai were all seated around the table, just waiting for Lucas to join them.
"Wow, it's quite a feast today too."
Lucas looked at the dazzling array of dishes on the table and said in surprise.
"Gothitelle, Alcremie, and little Meowstic made all of this together,"
Mrs. Fujino said with a smile.
"And me!"
Mrs. Fujino laughed. "Right, and our little Zorua."
"Wonderful."
Alcremie, little Meowstic, and Zorua all smiled happily.
"Why did we decide to eat in the yard today?"
Lucas asked, puzzled.
"I say, Lucas, can we eat first? You talk too much."
Darkrai's dissatisfied voice rang out; it had been wanting to dig in for a while.
"Because the weather is so nice today, and we haven't eaten in the backyard for a long time, we decided to have dinner out here tonight. Look, little Shauna and her father set up all the lights around us themselves,"
Mrs. Fujino said with a smile.
"Is little Shauna already this capable?"
Lucas said, looking at little Shauna sitting opposite him.
Little Shauna puffed out her chest, wishing she could point her nose to the sky.
"Lucas—"
"Alright, alright, let's eat first, or a certain Darkrai is going to beat me to death."
Lucas placed a large chicken drumstick into Gengar's and Darkrai's bowls.
"Just eat up. When there's a fight, you're nowhere to be found, but you don't need an invitation to eat."
"I just couldn't make it in time—"
Darkrai said, feeling a bit guilty.
Lucas rolled his eyes.
Lucas peeled an egg for Pachirisu, who took it and quietly nibbled on it.
Actually... if there's delicious food to eat every day, it wouldn't be completely out of the question to let this two-legged beast sniff me.
After dinner, as soon as it heard Lucas asking it to stay and wash the dishes, Darkrai quickly spoke up: "I've been out for so long, I need to go back to the yard. It wouldn't be good if another accident happened."
Lucas: —
"There's a late-night snack tonight."
"Really? What time? I'll come back then. It's quick anyway."
Lucas: —
(Smiles)
Darkrai: Oh no—
"Hehe, am I that kind of Pokémon? Right? I really have to go back. Remember to call me next time something happens."
Darkrai waved at Lucas, then slipped into the shadows and left the Breeding House.
It was so fast that Lucas didn't even have time to react.
It felt quite a bit like a hasty retreat.
Lucas sighed and walked into the kitchen to help wash the dishes, only to be tossed right back out by Gothitelle using her psychic power.
"Gothitelle."
Go take a bath.
Hearing Gothitelle's words, Lucas stood up, patted his slightly sore buttocks, and headed to the bathroom in his room with Gengar and Mime Jr. to take a nice bath, bringing Pachirisu along too.
After bathing, Lucas lay on the bed and talked on the phone with Cynthia for a while. Once Cynthia hung up to rest, Lucas earnestly read the text that appeared before his eyes.
[The Reverse Side of the World: As an existence that once challenged Arceus, Giratina was banished by Arceus to The Reverse Side of the World, namely the Distortion World. Due to certain special reasons, Giratina fell into a state of frenzy. Under the joint efforts of you and your most trusted Pokémon, Giratina was restored to normal. To express its gratitude, Giratina has presented you with its most sincere gifts.]
[Gift 1: "Messenger of Shadows". As a Pokémon skilled in using shadow power, Gengar seems to have learned some moves that it shouldn't normally be able to master. This made Giratina very curious. It felt that since Gengar could learn the moves of the Darkrai Family and the Zorua Family, could it also learn the moves that Giratina itself is best at? To verify this theory, Giratina has given Gengar the key to open the gates of the Distortion World. Gengar has become the Messenger of Shadows, allowing it to freely travel to and from the Distortion World.]
[Gengar will go to the Distortion World to undergo training from Giratina over the next period. Perhaps there will be unexpected changes, or perhaps not?]
[Gift 2: "Authority". It seems you can... open the gates to the Distortion World?! (Garbled code)?!!!]
[Gratitude of the Gracidea flower garden: Shaymin, as a miraculous Pokémon, possesses the power to dissolve toxins in the atmosphere and instantly transform barren land into a flowerbed. Legend has it that when people rejoice at the end of a harsh winter with the changing of seasons and offer their gratitude to the heavens, Shaymin will appear to cover the desolate land with flowers. Furthermore, when it is gently held in a human's arms and senses their feelings of gratitude, the flowers all over its body will bloom. While lying in Ash's arms, it witnessed the entire process of you taking on the frenzied Giratina to Protect them. It was deeply moved by the bond between you and your Pokémon and is sincerely grateful to you for protecting the flower garden, protecting it, and protecting everything. Therefore, it has brought the entire Shaymin flock to present you with their most sincere gifts.]
[That Touch of Shinny in the Gracidea flower garden: Legend has it that Shaymin possesses the ability to open pathways to the Distortion World, an ability that grants it impressive combat strength. They have noticed one of your Pokémon, so they will pass by the Breeding House at a specific time to teach your Pokémon. However, the ability to open the pathway to the Distortion World does not seem to be teachable.]
[Teachable Pokémon: Lilligant, Roserade (?)]
[gracidea flower: Legend has it that to convey feelings of gratitude, Shaymin will fly into the sky during the season when gracidea flowers bloom. Shaymin has gifted you the seeds of its favorite flower.]
[Gracidea Flower Seeds: A gift from Shaymin, these are seeds that can grow into gracidea flowers. You can plant them in the soil of the Breeding House. Perhaps before long, the Breeding House will be filled with beautiful and grateful gracidea flowers. It seems they might trigger a miraculous reaction with a certain magical Pokémon in the Breeding House?]
Wow—
This is another massive buff for Gengar.
As everyone knows, Darkrai and Giratina are known as "little Gengars"— (crossed out)
Lucas could already imagine future battles: when an opponent used Protect, Gengar would launch a sneak attack with Shadow Force to break through the protective barrier, and then toss a Dark Void containing Dark Pulse—
Fake dirty: Substitute-Protect-Toxic. Real dirty: Shadow Force, Dark Void, Dark Pulse.
Did he have the ability to open the Distortion World?
Lucas rubbed his chin and frowned.
Shouldn't this kind of ability only be something Pokémon could learn?
Could this be a unique ability of mine?
Shadow Power? Distortion Power?
Could it be that I am actually Giratina?
By the way, how am I supposed to open the gate to the Distortion World?
Lucas tried extending his left hand, opening his palm, and after thinking for a moment, he shouted.
"Open!"
Gengar floated out from the bathroom in a good mood, but Lucas's sudden shout of "Open" scared it so much that it dove straight back into the ceiling.
"Gen gengar?"
What's wrong with you?
Gengar poked its head out, looked at Lucas, and asked.
Lucas realized there was no reaction at all and pursed his lips.
—— What is this? Was I tricked?
[Gift Two: "Authority", you seem to be able to open the gate to the Distortion World? You can send an invitation to Giratina, and after receiving permission, you can open the gate to the Distortion World.]
Looking at the text that popped up again, Lucas sat cross-legged and nodded.
"So that's how it is."
Then what's the difference between this and me just telling Giratina, and then Giratina opening the gate to the Distortion World for me?
[————] [You guessed right.]
Lucas: ————
Deep breath————
At this moment, Lucas felt an inexplicable sensation in his heart, and the next second, a familiar voice transmitted into his mind.
"Lucas, do you want to open the passage to the Distortion World?"
"Giratina?"
Lucas was somewhat shocked.
"Yes, is there something you need? Do you want me to open the passage to the Distortion World for you?"
Lucas: ———— See! I told you! It's them opening it, not me!
I actually thought I had turned into Brother Xiaoming, where I could just raise my palm and a mirror would appear in front of me, allowing me to walk through it at will.
"No need, I was just testing it out."
"Alright, then I'll go back to repairing the Distortion World. Remember to have Gengar come find me; I can help guide it."
"Alright, thank you for your hard work."
After Lucas disconnected from Giratina, Gothitelle and Lilligant pushed the door open and walked in.
Seeing Ninetales lying on the carpet, Lucas skillfully rolled a few times, then rolled from the bed into Ninetales' arms, and Mime Jr. imitated him in a similar fashion.
Pachirisu hesitated for a moment, then also started rolling.
Unexpectedly, Dash also came to the room tonight, but it was sitting on the balcony, continuing the training it had been persisting with since arriving at the Breeding House.
Gothitelle turned off the lights, leaving only the small lamp on the vanity illuminated in the entire room.
Having slept all afternoon, Lucas had no sleepiness at all, even with Mime Jr. and Pachirisu in his arms.
He opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Gengar, covered with a small blanket on the ceiling, sensed something, looked at Lucas, and whispered: "Gen gengar?"
What's wrong with you?
Lucas shook his head and replied in a similarly low voice: "I can't sleep."
"Gen gengar?" What should we do?
"Why don't you come down and keep me company for a bit?"
Gengar nodded and carefully floated to Lucas's side. Lucas carefully stood up, stepped over the sprawled-out Latias, went to the vanity, sat in the chair, and with the help of the small lamp, took out the Gracidea Flower Seeds and whispered: "When the weather is suitable, how about we plant the Breeding House full of gracidea flowers? They're the flowers we saw in the flower garden."
"Gen gengar." I remember, that kind of very beautiful flower.
Lucas nodded, "When the time comes, seeing the beautiful gracidea flowers every day, I'm sure Gothitelle and the others will be very happy, right?"
" " Gengar nodded.
"And then we can expand the cultivation area of the Breeding House, and then————"
Getting more and more excited as he spoke, Lucas simply took out a pen and started drawing on paper, explaining to Gengar while he drew.
At this moment, the lights were turned on.
Lucas looked up and found that Gothitelle and the others were all awake, watching him and Gengar.
Except for a certain Plane Sister who was sleeping soundly.
Lucas felt inexplicably guilty, "Did I wake you all up?"
Lilligant rubbed her eyes and shook her head, "Lilli."
We woke up when you got up.
Pachirisu: Huh? Really? Didn't I just wake up?
"Gothitelle." Keep the lights on while you talk, otherwise it's bad for your eyes, and we might as well listen too.
Lucas grinned.
Then he continued talking, with all the Pokémon gathering around him, listening carefully to him describe his work plan for the Breeding House after spring begins.
"Nini~" It could also be like this here. Mime Jr. sat on Lucas's lap and offered suggestions.
"That works, as long as Mime Jr. likes it."
"Lilli?" How about this here?
"Okay."
"Shoo." Where I want to sleep.
"No problem."
Until a sheet of paper was filled with drawings, Lucas suddenly stood up and walked to the balcony, and Gengar and the others followed Lucas to stand on the balcony.
Lucas watched Lilligant sitting on the balcony, her two little feet dangling in the air, and Lucas suddenly remembered when she was still a Petilil; at that time, she also stayed on the balcony, with himself and Gengar behind her————
Lucas suddenly pointed to the pitch-black Breeding House in the distance, "Lilligant, use Seed Flare."
Lilligant: ???
Seeing Lilligant's puzzled expression as she looked at him, Lucas realized something and scratched his head in embarrassment.
Lilligant and Gothitelle exchanged a glance.
Lilligant: Me? Seed Flare? Is he running a fever again?
Gothitelle: Just get used to it.
———— At this moment, a gentle light suddenly erupted in the distance.
Lucas and the Pokémon looked over.
A rascally, handsome little face appeared before everyone's eyes, followed by a group of rascally, handsome little faces, among which there was one face Lucas was very familiar with.
"Seed Flare? Is it like this? Lucas."
The leading Shaymin said with a smile.
Lucas: ???
"You————how did you come here?"
At this time, the Shaymin that Lucas had saved spoke up: "Guess? Hee hee."
The leading Shaymin brought the Shaymins to the side of the balcony, and Gengar counted them; there were twelve Shaymins in total.
"Lucas, thank you for guarding the flower garden and also protecting it."
The leading Shaymin said sincerely.
"It was my duty."
The leading Shaymin nodded, "I heard from it that you have a Pokémon very suitable for learning our Family's skills, so we came over. To repay your help, we will help you teach that Pokémon, but I just discovered that there seems to be another Pokémon that is suitable. If you don't mind, we can teach them together, but we can't guarantee they will definitely learn it, after all, this is a move that only our Family can master."
If it hadn't been for the Shaymin saying that Lucas's Gengar knew Dark Void and Dark Pulse, the leading Shaymin wouldn't have believed what the Shaymin said.
But when they arrived at the Breeding House just now, smelling the fragrance of the flowers in the Breeding House, they actually all evolved into Sky Forme.
The flower fragrance in the Breeding House was full of happiness, joy, and gratitude.
That was why they were able to evolve into Sky Forme when they smelled this fragrance.
Now it already believed what the Shaymin said.
Perhaps they really could learn the moves of its Family.
"Bee?" Vespiquen flew over, asking Lucas what happened.
After Lucas explained it once, Vespiquen looked at the Shaymins, nodded, and then flew back to the beehive.
"Don't worry about us, we will rest in the flower garden. For us, that place is very helpful; after all, it's my first time seeing such a magical flower garden."
The leading Shaymin saw Lucas's hesitation and said understandingly.
Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. After all, with so many Shaymins coming over, his room definitely couldn't accommodate them, but other Pokémon couldn't enter the Vespiquen's hive in the Forest Area either. If he let them rest outdoors, it would be a bit inconsistent with a host's conduct.
"Lucas?"
Hearing a familiar voice, Lucas looked up and found that a passage to the Distortion World had appeared in the sky at some point. At this moment, Giratina was looking at him from across the passage with a bewildered expression.
"Forgot, our Seed Flare can open the passage to the Distortion World————"
The leading Shaymin was somewhat embarrassed.
"It's fine, it's fine, unexpected, unexpected, you go back to what you were doing."
Lucas hurriedly explained to Giratina, and then closed the passage to the Distortion World.
He discovered that he could close the passage to the Distortion World without Giratina's consent.
"Doesn't that mean in the future————"
"Don't worry, if we are careful, we won't open the passage."
Lucas felt relieved.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
The leading Shaymin shook its head, indicating it was fine, and then flew towards the flower garden with the Shaymins.
Shaymin turned back and gave Lucas a smile.
Lucas winked at it, then raised an eyebrow, "I'll make something delicious for you all tomorrow, especially for you."
"Hee hee."
Lucas stretched, "I'm feeling a bit sleepy, let's go rest."
"Night, everyone, sweet dreams."
"Gen gengar—" "Lilli." "Gothitelle." "Shoo." —— "Ma Machamp." "Mine mine~"
***************************
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