First was the television. Currently, aside from playing with Pokémon or reading books, there were no other entertainment facilities in the daycare.
Moreover, given the early timeframe—Steven had only just turned ten—electronic products like smartphones hadn't been developed yet.
With the daycare located in the wilderness, in a remote environment with limited access to information, a television capable of broadcasting news and keeping them informed of outside events became a necessity.
Next was the Poké Ball transfer machine.
This was a device capable of remotely transmitting Pokémon. In the future, if trainers wanted to remotely leave Pokémon for daycare, they could go directly to their local Pokémon Center and use the Poké Ball transfer machine to send their Pokémon to the daycare.
However, Kawaki wasn't currently sure if this type of machine had been developed yet.
If he remembered correctly, this technology was jointly developed by Bill and his team from the Kanto region.
Finally, there was finding a way to make Pokéblocks to upgrade the quality of Pokémon meals at the daycare.
That intelligence chief Taillow had stopped coming precisely because it disdained the poor food at his place.
Just as Kawaki was preparing to set out for Fallarbor Town with Bewear to solve these problems, the daycare lights suddenly went out.
After careful inspection, he discovered the entire daycare had lost power!
The daycare was located in the wilderness, with electricity transmitted from Fallarbor Town through power lines. Now the lines were old and deteriorated from years without maintenance, and who knew where the problem had occurred.
Kawaki checked around, the daycare's main breaker had no issues, so presumably somewhere along the line connecting Fallarbor Town to the daycare had a problem.
Sigh, at times like this it would be great to have an Electric-type Pokémon.
That way, they could generate their own electricity, be self-sufficient, and wouldn't even have to pay electric bills.
Even just a Pikachu would do.
Unfortunately, Kawaki hadn't seen a single Electric-type Pokémon so far.
The batch of eggs sent by the Hoenn League didn't include any Electric-type Pokémon either, or he would have kept one to hatch and raise himself.
Oh well, he'd find someone to repair it during this trip to town!
Kawaki gathered his money and found Bewear, preparing to go to Fallarbor Town together.
However, before departing, they had one more thing to do.
Kawaki called all the Clefairy and Oddish from the backyard to his room.
Facing the group of innocent Pokémon, Kawaki spoke:
"Next, Bewear and I need to go to Fallarbor Town. It's quite far from here, so we'll probably be gone for a long time before we can return."
"Clefairy..."
"Oddish?"
"So while we're gone, you must stay obediently in this room and not wander around, understand? I'll lock all the doors and windows, and no matter who knocks except me, you must not open the door," Kawaki instructed worriedly.
"Clefairy..." Clefairy looked confused: "Clefairy?" Why?
Kawaki saw its confusion and explained: "Because I'm worried that bad people might come to capture you while Bewear and I are away. That would be terrible. Captured Pokémon are forced to work, and if they don't obey, they get shocked. Not only that, they're sold to random people."
"Clefairy...!"
"Oddish..."
"Woof..."
All the Pokémon: (⋟﹏⋞)
The group of Pokémon was immediately frightened by these words, their faces showing scared expressions.
That sounded terrifying!
They didn't want to be captured!
Oddish didn't want to be captured because through these days of interaction, it had grown to love this place!
The Clefairy didn't want to be captured either—they still needed to help Kawaki work and earn money to repair their spaceship!
Growlithe especially didn't want to be captured—if it left Kawaki, it wouldn't be able to sleep!
All the Pokémon looked distressed.
This wasn't Kawaki being alarmist, because these were indeed things that Pokémon hunters and evil organizations were capable of doing.
Of course, he did mean to frighten the Pokémon a little.
Seeing that his goal was achieved, Kawaki surveyed the Pokémon before him and asked:
"Until I return, everyone stay obediently in this room and don't go out, understand?"
"Clefairy!" The Clefairy were scared and nodded their little heads repeatedly.
Oddish also cowered to the side, trembling.
"Woof...!"
Growlithe looked somewhat aggrieved because it wanted to go to town with Kawaki.
"That won't work, Growlithe." Kawaki patted its fluffy head.
Under Growlithe's puzzled gaze, Kawaki continued: "Your nose is the most sensitive—you can smell bad people and help everyone stay alert. Plus, you're already a big dog now, so you need to stay and protect everyone for me."
Growlithe was naturally a Pokémon with a strong sense of responsibility and a righteous heart.
Hearing this, Growlithe, who had hatched less than a month ago, immediately straightened its back.
That's right! It could now use Ember attacks and Sleep Powder—it was now a powerful big dawg, so it had to stay and protect everyone!
"Be good, we'll be back soon."
Kawaki looked at the Clefairy hiding under the blankets and felt somewhat speechless.
It wasn't quite that dramatic.
"Don't open the door for anyone except me, and don't respond to them either. Remember that?" Kawaki instructed.
"Clefairy!" The Pokémon responded in unison.
Kawaki nodded and was about to turn and go downstairs when he saw Bewear looking at everyone, its nose twitching as if memorizing every Pokémon's scent.
As a bear Pokémon, Bewear had an exceptionally keen sense of smell.
Kawaki's words had also instilled a sense of crisis in it.
So it wanted to remember every Pokémon's scent here.
Because it had already considered everyone in the daycare—including Kawaki and all the Pokémon—as its own children.
If anyone dared to capture its children, even if it had to chase them to the ends of the earth, it would bring them back.
And give that person a severe lesson while it was at it!
"Let's go, Bewear!" Kawaki called.
Only then did Bewear follow.
Kawaki checked the daycare thoroughly and carefully locked every door and window, then hung a sign on the daycare door reading "Out on Business, Temporarily Closed."
Bewear scooped Kawaki up under its arm, suddenly accelerated with a burst of speed, and charged toward Fallarbor Town.
Kawaki: "..."
At this moment, he really wanted to shout like Team Rocket's trio:
What a terrible feeling!
Being carried under an arm felt awful, but if they relied solely on walking, it would take them half a day to reach Fallarbor Town. To go and return quickly, this was currently their only option.
Fortunately, Bewear was fast enough and didn't make Kawaki suffer for too long.
Fallarbor Town, they'd arrived!