Mela really did have some talent for drawing. As expected of a girl who had been praised by artists in Pokémon Masters.
At first, she stumbled through it, but she quickly improved. Even though it was her first time drawing, under Hikaru's guidance, that "Newbie Hero" piece was completed at an excellent level.
Her heart pounded wildly. Since the day she was born, she had never felt this happy and excited just from completing a single task. In that instant, the red-haired girl understood where her talent truly lay, and she realized that art would illuminate the rest of her life.
"Th-thank you, sensei!"
"And thank you too, Charcadet!"
Mela's expression softened, filled with anticipation for the future.
"You're really cool."
"Someday I'm going to catch a Charcadet too, and I'll dress it up to look as cool as you."
Charcadet looked at the drawing and nodded in satisfaction.
Mm. This is already better than what the best drawing pro in our village can do.
"Char-ca-det, char-ca-det, what's it saying?" Hikaru coughed lightly. "Charcadet says your drawing skill has already surpassed the best painter in its village."
Hey, obviously.
Tinkaton and the others draw at a level that's basically caveman art for humans.
Even a five-year-old who's learned a little art could draw better than them.
You should be comparing her to Grafaiai or Smeargle instead.
Mela blinked. "Huh, really? Then I'm already amazing. Wait, it actually has a village?"
Hikaru said, "Yeah, but the village is all Pokémon."
Mela said, "...?"
The newbie hero, the temporary teacher, and the art apprentice stared at each other in silence for a long moment, then burst out laughing together.
"But if that's a Pokémon compliment, at least it means my picture looks good."
"I'm going to draw even better in the future. I'll definitely surpass the painters in your village!"
Mela didn't spiral into self-doubt. Instead, she naturally leaned toward the positive. That was partly because of the Miracle artwork's influence on her.
And partly because, at this point, she hadn't suffered bullying yet. She hadn't even started school.
"If you want to refine your technique, catching a Pokémon that's good at painting is a pretty great idea," Hikaru said.
"If I had to recommend one, it'd be Smeargle for sure. But that Pokémon doesn't seem to exist in this region."
"Second choice would be Grafaiai. But its paint and bodily fluids are toxic, so you have to be extremely careful."
The evil coaxing and instigation began.
Hikaru started cooking up nonsense in the best possible way.
"Smeargle is a Johto Pokémon. Of course, it's also widely distributed in other regions. It's white with some brown parts, and it looks like a dog standing on two legs. It has a long tail, and the tip looks like a paintbrush. The fluid that seeps from the front end of its tail changes color depending on Smeargle's emotions."
"A lot of artists and painters let Smeargle assist them. Sometimes, the works Smeargle paints can be even better than the artist's own."
"And that's not all."
"Besides art and daily life, Smeargle is also a strong battler, thanks to its signature move, Sketch."
"Sketch can copy another Pokémon's move and make it its own. Supposedly, a Smeargle that masters Sketch to perfection can even fully reproduce legendary moves."
That had been shown in the Pokémon Adventures manga, too.
In the climactic battle of the Gold and Silver arc, a TV host's Smeargle, belonging to Ms. Kurumi, Sketched Entei's "Flame of Life."
It even perfectly copied the special properties of that flame, and in a single strike, it destroyed the permanent ice wall clone created by Pryce.
It was basically the absolute peak moment for the dog in the manga.
And in competitive battling, the dog's peak moments were far too many to count.
Plus, Smeargle looked really cute.
"Smeargle, huh..." Mela muttered as she thought. "I know it, but Paldea really doesn't have that Pokémon."
"I've got it. I'll find a way to catch one!"
If you wanted Smeargle, you didn't necessarily have to go all the way to Johto.
Because it was widely distributed elsewhere too, like Sinnoh and Unova, and also Kalos, which was much closer to Paldea.
"Remember this," Hikaru said, leaning in with a grin. "Smeargle's moveset has to include Spore. When you copy moves with Sketch, prioritize copying that one."
Mela froze. "Spore? Why?"
Hikaru laughed. "Because sleep is an extremely important status condition in Pokémon battles."
"You saw it when I fought Rika-onee-san, right? If you're asleep and you don't have the right moves, like Snore or Sleep Talk, then you're just meat on the chopping block."
"In battle, sleep you trigger on yourself can restore HP and clear status conditions. But if it's a sleep-inducing move used by the opponent, not only does it not restore your HP, it just leaves you unable to act."
"In official Indigo League tournaments, sleep was once considered such a dangerous state that if your Pokémon fell asleep, it could be ruled 'unable to battle' and eliminated."
"Compared to Hypnosis, which has shaky accuracy, slow deployment, and a narrow effective area, Spore spreads faster and covers more ground."
Hikaru carefully explained to the red-haired girl all the advantages of Smeargle and Spore.
And he had used Hypnosis before, too.
Back in Unova, when dealing with those Rotom from the spirit realm, he'd borrowed a performer named Shoko's Patrat and used Hypnosis. If it hadn't been four Patrat casting Hypnosis together, they probably wouldn't have hit those Rotom at all.
Mela was so thoroughly led along that she didn't even notice. And when Hikaru added that if she trained Smeargle properly, then after she enrolled at Naranja Academy she could place among the top students, and that she could secure a real place for herself both in life goals and in battling, the red-haired girl clenched her fist immediately.
"Spore. I'll remember it!"
Yes. Exactly.
Now we've found the reason you'll get bullied, right? Just like Yugi Muto, you play too dirty.
Though this time, it'll probably turn into isolation instead of direct bullying.
But it doesn't matter. As long as you force them into battles and beat them down again, they'll kneel and beg.
In the end, the issue isn't whether you play dirty or not. The issue is that Paldea Academy's school culture is messed up.
The upper administration only knows how to suppress the "delinquent problem," worried it'll hurt the school's reputation, never realizing that this just causes all the problems to explode later at once.
In the original timeline, Team Star's members didn't really do anything. Especially Mela. She got bullied just because she was small and cute. In the end, those students were simply looking for any excuse to bully someone.
The benefit of playing dirty and being strong is that you can protect yourself in a school like that.
"Of course, you need to be a bit careful," Hikaru added. "When a Grass-type Pokémon uses Spore, and it's used on humans, it can potentially make us develop a fever or paralysis. So if you're taking Smeargle around to Sketch moves, you have to be careful."
"Don't ever go alone, okay?"
Ash had taken a huge L from that before. Even a super Pallet Town newbie's physique couldn't withstand it. So in real battles, Spore was an extremely dangerous move. It could genuinely "solo-kill a Trainer."
After chatting for a while about different battle styles for Smeargle, Hikaru looked at Mela's sparkling, starry eyes and felt confident.
After Rosa, Nate, and Hugh, he'd once again planted a seed of dirty tactics in this world.
Ah, right. And Hilda too, who was currently using the team he'd quietly told her about to run rental teams and power-level at the Battle Subway.
That was the learning and growth of youth, wasn't it? Truly moving.
Unova and Paldea's futures were blazing bright.
Who else hasn't grown up yet? Kalos, Alola, Galar?
Right. Marnie had told him to go to Spikemuth, hadn't she? When the time came, he'd put together a Dark-type lineup for her too. Galar's future would be set as well.
Murkrow, Sableye, Incineroar, he'd line them all up for her.
Fake Out, Parting Shot, U-turn, Snarl, Trick, Disable, and then, when you have nothing left, start Struggling.
"Oh, right, Incineroar." Hikaru suddenly remembered. "How did I forget that one? I'll send a message to Hilda later too. She should find a way to catch one."
In this world, Hilda wasn't a "proper" hero.
But if Ghetsis-san ever made a comeback, there was always a chance Hilda would run into him. If she wasn't in Unova at the time, she could still go help the next generation, casually toss out an Incineroar, and repeatedly Fake Out and Intimidate him.
That would absolutely give Ghetsis a psychological scar. He'd be dreaming about Fake Out at night.
Then have Rosa catch a Rillaboom too. Set Grassy Terrain and start kicking with Grassy Glide.
Pair it with Incineroar, and those two sisters could perform the famous combo technique, "Parting Shot Glide."
Isn't there a saying?
The true starter trio is Incineroar, the monkey, and Urshifu. How violent is that?
Intimidate plus Fake Out.
Grassy Glide with Grassy Terrain.
Surging Strikes hitting three times.
——————
Iono's evaluation ended quickly.
From her delighted expression, you couldn't tell anything at all. Because even when she lost, she stayed delighted.
To Iono, winning or losing didn't matter. What mattered was whether the video footage was good enough, and later, whether the popularity index for that battle went up or not.
"Ehehe. Rika-onee-san was so violent this time. I don't remember you going that hard against me before. Did something刺激 you?"
"Yeah." Rika-onee-san nodded. "For me, I've got a target I want to catch up to and defeat now."
The two of them chatted and laughed as they came back, and Iono immediately came hopping over.
"Listen, listen. This machine is super, super useful!"
"It can film in all directions with zero blind spots. It's my first time seeing a robot like this. And it can understand my commands too, but it doesn't look like it has high-level AI. So why is that?"
Hikaru said, "If it's useful, then great. It's actually a poacher's machine."
Iono jolted. "Huh?!!!"
"Don't worry." Hikaru waved it off. "After I modified it, it lost all poaching functions. There's no tracking either. Honestly, the thing had already been broken to the point of being junk when I got it."
"Poachers in other regions carry these around all the time. I figured, if you use this kind of tech for normal work, it's really convenient. So I took down a poacher and grabbed his machine."
Iono looked fascinated. "Ohhh. You've been through some wild stuff too. Paldea never sees poachers like that... but I've heard about them."
"Is poaching really that rampant in other regions?"
"Yeah," Hikaru said. "You could say it's extremely rampant. Leagues everywhere, Pokémon Rangers, and the International Police are all cracking down on these criminals continuously. If you run into them, don't hold back."
"Team Rocket used to poach too," Rika-onee-san added.
"Exactly." Hikaru nodded. "That's why I say don't hold back. Lance, the Champion of Johto, straight-up attacked them directly with Hyper Beam."
Paldea not having poaching syndicates really was counterintuitive. But while Pokémon hunters sounded scary, people like Hunter J, who had large-scale poaching capability, were rare in the end.
And in the games, the poaching side of things was basically handled entirely by Team Rocket, and Team Rocket had already been smashed to pieces by Red and Ethan and the others.
"Hey." Iono leaned in eagerly. "Let's talk about product promotion. With a machine this good, my filming career can finally free my hands and get way easier. If you have more machines like this, you can keep supplying them to me too!"
Hikaru nodded, then smiled as he took out a glowing vegetable and explained that it was currently being cultivated in Mistralton City in Unova, and he hoped to open up overseas distribution channels in Paldea.
As for how it actually tasted...
Iono stared. "Th-this veggie looks like it's glowing. Am I seeing things?"
Rika-onee-san sniffed it carefully, then furrowed her brow slightly.
"I've got a weird feeling that if you eat this, it's basically like Herba Mystica?"
"This isn't ordinary stuff..." Rika-onee-san sighed. "Seriously. You're an Elite Four member in Paldea, but you're out here securing market access for Unova. Which side are you even on?"
Hikaru laughed and gave a simple explanation of the Radiant Vegetables' origins.
"The reason it's in Unova is because Mistralton City is the best place to cultivate it. It's a special vegetable planted by a Legendary Pokémon from the Dream World. In Paldea, which is rich in Terastal energy and Gourmet Energy, it'll become a household-name premium ingredient."
"And this is a key step in restoring Calyrex's power."
Iono and Rika-onee-san looked at each other, then asked at the same time, "You mentioned a legendary dragon before too. What exactly is that?"
"It's the legend that created Unova." Hikaru lowered his eyelids, and in that moment he gave off a unique presence. "I'm from Sinjoh. Rika-onee-san, you know the legends of Sinjoh too, don't you?"
"Because I'm connected to Sinjoh, I've had the fortune of meeting certain Legendary Pokémon... and forming a bit of a private relationship with them."
"Sinjoh..." Rika-onee-san murmured. "I only know it's a legendary place in the stories from Johto, but I don't know where it is. I left Johto a long time ago."
"So you're not just searching for precious treasures, you're also helping those Legendary Pokémon, huh?"
"Exactly," Hikaru said.
Iono's eyes lit up. "You sound like someone out of an ancient novel. Like the tamer from the legends of the Paldean Empire."
Her interest was fully hooked now. "So when I promote this, do you want me to include Calyrex's legend too? The logo's already done. It'd be such a waste not to use it."
"Hmm, yeah, but you said Calyrex is a lost legend from Galar. If I say Calyrex's name in the promotion, and people from Galar come piggyback on the hype, I'll feel so frustrated."
"It's fine," Hikaru said. "The higher the hype, the more the King's power will rise, and the vegetables will become even more delicious. What Galar does has nothing to do with Paldea, right? Either way, supply will prioritize here first."
"If we bring these vegetables into the academy cafeteria, over time, we can even strengthen the physiques of students and Pokémon."
Rika-onee-san's eyes sharpened immediately, and she looked genuinely excited.
"I think that's a good idea. Let's talk to the chairwoman."
"Yeah," she continued. "If the number of talented people increases, we won't have to keep working overtime like this. Students are Paldea's future, after all."
(End of Chapter)
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