Auron glanced at the chubby Fugui and smiled.
"Sure. And it's not just me—you'll have plenty of other people to battle too."
Auron patted Fugui on the shoulder, then headed toward home.
"Come to my place tomorrow. I'm heading off now. Bye."
"Bye, Master!"
The chubby Fugui jumped up excitedly, happily waving his arms around.
"You're going back already? It's only a little past three."
On the way back, Jace asked with some confusion. Why wasn't Auron staying out to have some fun today? Why the rush to get home?
"Yeah, my grandpa just messaged me. I need to go home and drop off the Dratini egg, then head to the research institute."
"Ah, alright then. Guess I'll have to go back by myself. So boring."
Jace sighed helplessly, his hands clasped behind his head as he lazily kicked at pebbles along the road.
"Want to come to the institute with me and hang out?"
Auron watched Jace's demeanor and asked with a smile.
Jace was visibly tempted for a moment, but ultimately shook his head.
"Nah, I'll head home first and leave the Bulbasaur egg there, then go to the park and get some more Pokémon battles in. I really don't have enough battle experience."
"Alright then. Good luck."
Auron gave a casual, perfunctory response with a smile, then turned into his house. Behind him, Jace was somewhat amused and annoyed, calling out:
"Hey, couldn't you at least try to convince me? Maybe I would've gone!"
Auron looked back at Jace with disdain. "Convince you? Go get your battle experience."
"Tch."
Jace clicked his tongue dismissively at Auron, then turned and headed toward his own home.
Auron watched Jace's figure gradually disappear into the distance before heading inside.
"Hm? Nobody's home? Mom's not here either?"
Auron looked around the empty house with some curiosity. His mother shouldn't have had anything going on—she should be home watching dramas right now. Why wasn't she here?
At that very moment, his mother—who should have been watching dramas at home—had finally found a suitable location for opening a shop on her own. And it wasn't small either.
Auron shook his head at the empty house and carried the incubation tank upstairs.
After placing the Dratini egg on his desk, Auron looked at the two incubation tanks sitting there and murmured to himself.
"Who would've thought? It's only been a little over four months, and I've already basically assembled the six Pokémon for my team. I thought I'd have to wait at least until the first half of freshman year was over."
As he spoke, Auron gently patted the incubation tank containing Deoxys's energy core and said with a smile:
"Deoxys, I wonder when you'll be born. Look at Elekid—he arrived later than you, but he hatched early. And now he's even got a little sister."
Then Auron thought about Deoxys's situation and chuckled helplessly. He turned to look at the Dratini egg.
"Well, who knows when your big brother will be born. But since you arrived later, even if you hatch first, would you be willing to be his little sister?"
Auron leaned close to the Dratini egg and spoke gently.
"It's settled then, okay?"
"Haha."
Auron laughed happily, then turned to Deoxys's energy core and added:
"I found you a little sister. You two need to get along well, okay?"
After saying this, Auron gently touched both incubation tanks, then headed out. He still needed to get to the research institute—his grandfather had just sent two more messages urging him.
"Little sister."
After Auron left, a thought suddenly emerged from Deoxys's energy core.
Then the energy core began to tremble slowly.
After some time passed, Deoxys's energy core activated Psychic within the incubation tank, slowly pulling the tank containing Dratini closer.
But Deoxys was still just an energy core after all—like an unborn Pokémon, it didn't have much power.
Even so, it continued straining to use Psychic, dragging the Dratini tank toward itself.
A long time passed before Deoxys finally managed to pull the Dratini tank over, pressing it snugly against the three Plates stacked together.
Because Elekid had been born that morning, Auron's mother had come in and stacked the three Plates together, then placed Deoxys on top of them.
Yes, all for the sake of tidiness.
And so, Dratini's incubation tank was pulled over by Deoxys until it rested firmly against the three Plates.
Watching the energy from all three Plates simultaneously flow into Dratini's egg, Deoxys felt at ease.
"Little sister~"
Another thought transmitted outward. Deoxys gradually fell still, and its energy core seemed to have dimmed somewhat—not as bright as before.
The Dratini egg gently shifted within its incubation tank, appearing to have moved closer to the Deoxys side.
"Grandpa, how's the progress?"
Auron pushed open the back courtyard door and walked in to ask.
"Preliminary assessment suggests that Mega Evolution does indeed have a cooldown period. It's roughly around four hours."
Ashford nodded at Auron as he entered.
"But we've also discovered another issue. I just evolved Lucario—successfully. And earlier, my Kangaskhan and his Metagross could also Mega Evolve."
Ashford gestured toward the researchers nearby.
"But they couldn't trigger evolution. Even though we followed your distribution exactly, it just wouldn't succeed. After discussing it, we identified a problem: it seems like Mega Evolution can only work with your own Pokémon."
"Because among the three Pokémon that successfully evolved before—Venusaur, Sceptile, and Blastoise—they were all evolved alongside their respective trainers. So now I'm wondering if only your own Pokémon can Mega Evolve."
The moment Ashford finished, Flint chimed in.
"Yes, that's our theory. But just now, this researcher's Pidgeot also failed to evolve—and that's his own Pokémon."
Flint pointed at the embarrassed-looking intern researcher nearby.
Auron fell into thought. He knew exactly why this was happening, but he couldn't just come out and say it.
"Hm? Do you have some idea?"
Seeing Auron's expression, Ashford's eyes lit up.
He knew his grandson well. Setting aside the first ten-plus years, ever since the boy had his awakening these past few months, his mind had become exceptionally sharp.
Although Ashford hadn't been by Auron's side during this period, Ashen had been. And Ashen had told him everything about what Auron had been up to lately.
Not to mention, Ashford had seen all of Auron's research achievements with his own eyes. This had made him incredibly happy. He'd thought his grandson was just an ordinary person, but it turned out the boy had been a late bloomer all along.
"Yeah, I think I've got a lead."