"—" Pierre looked at the pearl, then at Willy in front of him. After a long moment, he began to feel remorseful about his own pettiness. "If you ever want Seafoam Pudding in the future—oh, no, Caroline won't let me make it anymore. Uh, anyway, thank you."
Willy smiled and turned his head to get back to work.
Pierre hugged the pearl, said his thanks, and turned to leave.
Fall. The Cindersap Forest, which was still emerald green yesterday, turned into a sea of golden yellow after just one night.
Dawn stepped on the leaves on the ground, following behind Ribbon, searching for the mushrooms hidden among the foliage.
The leaves crunched underfoot. From a distance, Dawn saw the Wizard's Tower standing in the distance.
"What's that?"
"What?" Leah looked in the direction Dawn was pointing and saw the ancient building wrapped in vines. "Oh, that's the Wizard's Tower. It's where the gentleman who brought you to Pelican Town last time lives."
"The Wizard's Tower." Dawn murmured, "Does magic really exist here?"
"Probably." Leah had never seen the Wizard cast spells in front of her either. She thought about it and said, "Didn't he use magic when he brought you here?"
"Wasn't that Teleport?" Dawn's eyes widened.
She then belatedly remembered that she hadn't seen the Wizard have that Metapod use Teleport at all.
But because that Metapod had used Burn Up, she hadn't even thought to question how a Metapod could use such a move.
"What's that?" Leah asked curiously. "Is it a Pokémon move?"
Seeing this, Dawn pulled out her Pokédex and patiently began explaining it to Leah.
***
Meanwhile, at the Farm.
Preparations were still ongoing, but before that, Ron had to do something major.
That was to allocate all the potential points the Pokémon had earned from working hard on the farm during this period.
First was Bellossom, who was in charge of going down into the mines. After being free-range for so long, Bellossom had saved up a massive wave of experience points. Ron distributed them evenly across Bellossom's various stats. As Ron clicked and allocated the points, Bellossom, who was currently holding a bomb and a giant sword in the desert mine, froze in its tracks.
"Bellossom?"
It felt a strange power constantly swelling within its body!
"Bellossom!"
Die!!! You monsters!!!
Bellossom tossed the bomb, then grabbed its longsword and charged toward the flying serpent rushing at it.
The longsword, which was almost twice Bellossom's size, instantly cleaved the flying serpent in two.
"Bellossom!"
Not just strength and speed, but even its defense seemed to have reached a terrifying number at this moment. Even though Bellossom didn't know the exact figures of its capabilities, it didn't stop it from realizing right here and now...
It was terrifyingly strong!
Kill, kill, kill!!!!
"—" The Geodude carrying the box in charge of collecting loot exchanged a glance with the Nacli that had come along to watch, and they couldn't help but take a few steps back.
Neither of them dared to make a sound right now, deeply afraid that if Bellossom hadn't quenched its bloodlust, it would charge over and fight them to the death.
"Na?" Nacli sighed.
Holy Arceus, I'll probably be split in two.
"Geodude! Geodude!"
Being reduced to ashes isn't out of the question either.
Are we really bringing this thing to the League Tournament?
Nacli looked at Bellossom in horror, feeling momentarily grateful that it wasn't under another trainer's command, and therefore didn't have to worry about one day being Bellossom's opponent.
S-so terrifying!!!
***
After finishing allocating the points, Ron sat up from the steps, wondering if he had overdone his 'cheating'.
But these experience points were the result of everyone's hard work during this time.
Theoretically, it was also the reward everyone deserved for their hard work—right?
He pondered for a while but couldn't come up with an answer. However, bringing some strong Pokémon along wasn't a mistake. Even though Ron didn't want to go on a killing spree, there would always be some blind fools who would throw themselves at him.
"Achoo." Meowth sneezed. "Meowth feels like someone is badmouthing meowth behind my back, meow."
Meowth looked up and glanced around. Seeing nothing, he slowly strolled around Ginger Island.
It had stuffed its face all last night, and even after sleeping for a whole night, it hadn't digested a single bit of it.
"Will living so happily really not bring divine retribution, meow?" Meowth held its stomach, pacing back and forth on the beach. Staring at the azure sky, it felt quite emotional for a moment.
"Will living so happily really not bring divine retribution?" Jessie repeated Meowth's words. She had eaten even more than Meowth. Especially since Evelyn had specially made quite a few cookies for her—probably because the taste was somewhat similar to the taste in her memories. Even though she couldn't eat anymore, she had still forced herself to stuff quite a few down her stomach.
"Right, where's James?" Jessie asked.
"He didn't come back, meow. He got drunk yesterday, I remember he was with that guy—" Meowth frowned as he tried to recall, "Crying on the beach with Shane. Then Meowth came back, meow, the rest is a blur, meow."
"—" Jessie fell silent for a moment and burped.
After walking on the beach for a while, from a distance, Jessie spotted the old lady who often stayed by the beach.
"Good afternoon, Granny Birdie." Jessie greeted her.
"Good afternoon." Birdie greeted Jessie back. She then looked Jessie up and down, smiled after a moment, and said, "Oh right, child, I have a photograph here—it might be a bit presumptuous to ask, but if it's convenient for you, I'd like to ask you to help me look for a memento of my husband."
Saying this, a faded photograph was handed to Jessie by Birdie.
Jessie and Meowth exchanged a glance.
It wasn't hard to guess what the old lady was referring to. Jessie looked at the photograph in her hands and couldn't help but say, "Alright, if I can find it."
"That's wonderful, thank you, child." Birdie thanked Jessie, then turned back to blankly stare at the sea, as if she had begun reminiscing about her husband again.
"—But how are we supposed to find it, meow?" Meowth tilted his head up to ask Jessie.
"You take it to the Saloon and see if anyone knows about this photo," Jessie said matter-of-factly.
"—Meow?"
"I leave everything to you! Meowth!" Jessie smacked Meowth on the head, making a loud smack-smack sound.
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