Chapter 180:
October 8th.
Thanks to the hard work of all the Pokémon and the road construction crew, the road construction project was nearly three-quarters complete.
Dragonite's workload had gradually lightened, allowing it to return to the Breeding House from time to time.
Goodra, encouraged by Indeedee and Alolan Vulpix, had slowly become more active. During meals, it no longer hid solely behind Mewtwo or Hayashi Kaede.
Occasionally, it would pick up Alolan Vulpix or an Eevee and place them beside itself to eat together. Overall, their relationships were growing closer and closer.
If Hayashi Kaede's [Eye of Exploration] could see the friendship levels between Alolan Vulpix and Goodra, he might even suspect that Goodra's bond with them was now higher than its bond with him.
Then there was Salamence.
Hayashi Kaede kept a close watch on it daily. Over time, it had visibly calmed down, no longer snarling at the construction workers below frequently, and the blood-red tint in its eyes had faded significantly.
This noon, Hayashi Kaede sought out the often-silent large dragon and first checked its stats panel.
[Pokémon: Salamence]
[Gender: Male]
[Ability: Moxie]
[Aptitude: Red]
[IVs: ...]
[Level: 79]
[Moves: Roost, Dragon Breath, Dragon Dance, Dragon Tail, Dual Wingbeat, Hyper Beam, Flamethrower, Double-Edge, Earthquake...]
[Description: A powerful Salamence.]
[Friendship: 30 (It thinks you're quite persuasive.)]
[Happiness: 10]
Seeing these stats, Hayashi Kaede nodded with satisfaction.
Compared to when it first arrived, Salamence's energy level had fully recovered, and its friendship had even risen to 30. It no longer wore a perpetually grim expression like it did initially.
After all, he had used quite a few SSS-grade Ability Development Energy Cubes on it these past days.
"It looks like the previous deficits in your body have been mostly made up."
Hayashi Kaede familiarly patted its shoulder. Salamence glanced back at him, then turned away, even yawning as if it had grown accustomed to this.
Mewtwo, however, looked at Hayashi Kaede with some surprise.
It didn't know what Hayashi Kaede had done to Salamence that day, but ever since, Salamence had become much quieter.
Did he persuade Salamence, just like he did with me?
"What are you thinking about?"
Hayashi Kaede flew up and landed directly on Salamence's back.
Salamence impatiently increased the frequency of its wing beats but didn't say much.
It was somewhat interesting.Without psychic power to sustain it, Salamence had to flap its wings constantly to remain airborne for long periods.
In other words, it was flapping its wings all day long.
But this time, it unusually responded to Hayashi Kaede.
"Salamence..." (Thinking about the human who captured me back then.)
"The human who captured you?" Hayashi Kaede's interest was piqued. "Logically, your strength in the wild should be quite formidable. Who could capture you? What Pokémon did they use? It wasn't Mewtwo, was it?"
Hayashi Kaede looked at Mewtwo.
Because in its early days after being created, Mewtwo had indeed helped Team Rocket capture many Pokémon.
Mewtwo's face darkened. "It wasn't me. Most of the Pokémon I captured were released by me later. Back then..."
It recalled the human who had fitted it with restraining armor.
His Beedrill was incredibly powerful.
Back then, Mewtwo believed his words and helped him capture other Pokémon every day, usually entire populations at a time.
It was during that period that it slowly began to question the meaning of its own existence.
"Back then?" Hayashi Kaede pressed.
"The Pokémon captured back then were basically entire populations..."
Here, Mewtwo trailed off.
Sensing Mewtwo discomfort, Hayashi Kaede didn't push further and instead turned his attention back to Salamence. "If it wasn't Mewtwo who captured you, was it a Beedrill?"
After all, it was a peak Elite Four-level Pokémon. Shouldn't they have deployed some more impressive operatives?
But as soon as he said this, Mewtwo's expression froze.
It had just been thinking about that Beedrill, but it had never told Hayashi Kaede that that human had a very powerful Beedrill!
"Salamence?" (Beedrill?)
A flash of disdain crossed Salamence's face. "Salamence!" (How could it be a Beedrill? Those are just weak bugs! What captured me was a very large group of Pokémon. A bunch of them, with a whole crowd of Pokémon, on a huge airship.)
At this point, Salamence became agitated.
If it were just one Pokémon, why would it be afraid?
Individually, it wasn't afraid of any of the Pokémon that surrounded it, but together, they slowly wore down its stamina until it was captured.
"That does sound quite despicable. Ganging up on you like that" Hayashi Kaede echoed in empathy.
"Salamence!" (Yes, yes! One day, I'll catch them and give them a taste of my claws!)
Seeing Hayashi Kaede agree, Salamence grew even more excited, brandishing its sharp claws.
Hayashi Kaede continued in agreement, "I agree with that."
Hearing this, Salamence became even more exhilarated, its claws gleaming.
However the next second, it felt something was off and looked at Hayashi Kaede incredulously. "Salamence?" (You agree?)
"Of course. I only asked you not to hold malice toward other humans. After all, most humans are good people. I just don't want you to harm the innocent."