Chapter 118: Another Grass-Type Starter?
When the light from the egg became a continuous glow, the surface of the sea around the reef was illuminated. Some aquatic Pokémon, attracted by the light, poked their heads out of the water. But Will had no time to pay attention to them. His gaze was fixed on the egg in his arms.
In the white light, the oval-shaped egg began to change form. Even though it wasn't his first time seeing a Pokémon hatch, the process still filled him with a sense of wonder.
"Meow~"
The sound came before the shape was clear.
"A Skitty?" Will tilted his head. The voice was soft and sounded a bit like Granny Sola's. There were a lot of cat Pokémon in the world, but only a few came to mind immediately. Among them, Meowth, Litten, and Sprigatito were the most famous in the anime, games, and fan communities, respectively. But because he had just recently interacted with one, his first thought was of Skitty.
When the white light faded, Will knew he had guessed wrong. This was a little green cat. And it was a Grass-type starter.
A Sprigatito.
"Meow~"
The moment the Sprigatito was born, its gaze locked onto Will. Its big pink eyes stared at the Grovyle, and then it looked down at itself.
Same color. Check.
Similar aura. Check.
It's Mom!
"Meow~" Having confirmed this, the Sprigatito leaped directly into Will's arms.
"Hello, Sprigatito."
Will picked up the Sprigatito and rubbed his cheek against it in a friendly gesture. Although his heart was in a complicated state, the first priority was to greet the little one.
This Pokémon, Sprigatito, was the dark horse of the popularity world. In the rankings of Grass-type Pokémon, its popularity had even surpassed Serperior, second only to Rowlet—and that was its ranking before the main anime had even featured it.
There was another, more critical reason. Among the three final-stage starters of the ninth generation, the only good-looking one was Meowscarada. The other two were... not so easy on the eyes. This was especially true for players who chose Fuecoco; the moment they saw Skeledirge, they were in a mad dash to find an Everstone.
But that was just aesthetics. In terms of strength, the crocodile had the last laugh.
As for Sprigatito's final evolution, Meowscarada, it was quite strong at first, but after its Protean ability was nerfed, its power dropped, though it was still far from weak.
Setting the games aside and thinking in practical terms: its typing had six weaknesses and six resistances. One immunity (Psychic) and one 4x weakness (Bug) weren't game-changers. Overall, it was decent. Its stats were focused on Physical Attack and Speed—exactly the distribution his own Sceptile dreamed of.
But Sprigatito's most outstanding point was undoubtedly its absurdly wide movepool. Of the 18 types, it could learn moves from 15 of them. The only ones it couldn't learn were Fire, Dragon, and the noble Steel.
"Meow," the Sprigatito, new to this world, was curious about everything. But it was unwilling to leave Will's arms, so it just sat there, looking around.
"0.15 meters, less than 2 kilograms? Looks like it's a girl," Will said, looking down at the wiggling little furball. Its voice was too high-pitched for him to tell, so he could only judge its gender by its size. Most newborn Sprigatito were 0.2 meters or even a bit taller. This was because 87.5% of them were male, and the males were generally larger with a deeper body color. The one he had hatched was so small; it was, without a doubt, one of the rare females.
"Meow?" The Sprigatito looked up at Will, its little paw pointing at Tom and Corphish, who were dancing on the other side of the reef.
"Don't worry about them. Are you hungry? Let's see what there is to eat," Will said, scratching the Sprigatito under the chin. He then stood up and walked towards the two food boxes the blue-haired man had left. He hadn't eaten since being dropped here, mostly because he wasn't hungry. He felt that a Grass-type Pokémon could probably go for several days without eating and be just fine.
"Meow?"
"Pokémon Mush? That guy was actually pretty thorough," Will said, picking up a can. He recognized this because he had been fed it at Sola's. It was a common food for baby Pokémon in this era, and it came in many flavors. Of course, Sola had fed him a specially processed goat-milk mush, which was definitely superior in taste, texture, and nutritional value. But they couldn't be picky right now.
Will's fingers were sharp, and he easily opened the can. The mush inside was green, apparently made from some kind of plant as the main ingredient.
"Want to try?" Will sniffed it. It didn't smell bad and was probably well-suited for a Grass-type. Perhaps the blue-haired man had seen the egg was green, guessed it was a Grass-type, and left this flavor.
The Sprigatito licked it, its eyes lit up, and it buried its head in the can and began to chow down. In less than three minutes, the palm-sized kitten had inhaled a can almost as big as itself.
"Impressive," Will couldn't help but marvel.
Just then, Tom and the Corphish finally noticed the baby had been born and ran over to look at the little cat in Will's arms.
"Hey? What kind of Pokémon is that? I've never seen it before!" Tom's eyes widened, shining with light. This was a Pokémon he had truly never encountered! He had been sailing these seas for so long, and while he mostly traveled between Hoenn and Johto, he had also been to the more distant Kanto, Sinnoh, and Alola. But he had never seen or heard of a Pokémon like Sprigatito.
"Hey-hey!" The Corphish didn't care about that; it just waved its pincers to greet the Sprigatito. It even wanted to pat it, but Will blocked it with his hand. With the Corphish's lack of gentleness, one pat might have killed it.
"Meow..." The Sprigatito looked at the two large creatures that had suddenly approached, its big eyes trembling. Strange guys! It quickly shrank back into Will's arms.
Will wiped the mush off the little one's fur. He had analyzed some non-critical information from Tom's reaction.
Sprigatito is mainly distributed in the Paldea region. As for other regions, he didn't know, but as of when he had crossed over, there had been no news of wild Sprigatito populations being discovered elsewhere. Kanto, Johto, the Sevii Islands, Hoenn, and Sinnoh were in the Pokémon world's "northern hemisphere." Alola was in the middle. Unova, Paldea, Galar, and Kalos were in the "southern hemisphere."
Tom's shipping routes were mainly in the western part of the northern hemisphere, so it was perfectly normal for him not to have seen a Pokémon from the other half of the world. It was just like in Unova, where Iris and Cilan, who were from the southern part of the world, had never even heard of Pikachu, a Pokémon that in Kanto was "as common as a stray dog."
But Pikachu and Sprigatito were different. Pikachu was world-famous in his world, but in the Pokémon world, it was just an ordinary, unremarkable Pokémon. For the people of Unova, it was perfectly normal not to have seen or heard of it.
But Sprigatito was a starter chosen by the Paldea League; its data should have been registered. The League needed to account for the wishes of new trainers. Some might not like their local starters and could go to another region's lab to get a Pokémon. But before that, they needed to learn about the other region's starters. So, in theory, you should be able to easily find basic information about other regions' starters in any League. For Tom, who traveled everywhere and knew all kinds of people, to have never heard of it...
"Has the Paldea League not established its starters yet? No, wait... I don't think the Hoenn League has either," Will thought, as a sudden realization hit him.
He was so familiar with the regional starters because of his past memories. So, he had just assumed that since the Leagues existed, the starters must also exist. But this was only League Year 20. This was an era before the Pokémon League Conference had even been held. Many regions had only just stabilized from turmoil. Where would they find the time to research and establish suitable Pokémon for new trainers? The specialized starter-breeding facilities probably didn't even exist yet.
Perhaps Kanto and Johto had established theirs, since their Leagues were founded eighty years ago, but the Hoenn League, which was only thirty or forty years old, was much younger. If even Kanto and Johto hadn't finalized their starters, then the other regions certainly hadn't.
"Does that mean that in Johto, both me and Sprigatito will be extremely conspicuous?"
Will raised an eyebrow. This was not good news. He and Sprigatito were "wild Pokémon." If some uncultured person suddenly popped out of the tall grass and threw a dozen Poké Balls at them, it would be incredibly annoying.
I'd better find a Poké Ball and catch myself first, Will thought, his mind made up. When he got to Johto, he would find a way to get a Poké Ball and capture himself. That way, he wouldn't have to be afraid of someone throwing even a Master Ball at him.
As for Sprigatito...
Will looked down at the little green cat clinging to him, unsure of what to do. Should he hand it over to the Pokémon League? He was a little reluctant. He wanted to keep it, to raise it by his side, to become a Pokémon Trainer, as a Pokémon.
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