Hmm?
What does that mean?
Baimu was a bit confused, "If there's something, just say it. I can't interpret it from a look."
"..."
Upon hearing this, the Corsola silently turned around, showing its backside to him.
Baimu, knowing this fellow well, understood that a turned back meant there was nothing to say.
Did he overthink?
Nothing happened?
As he turned his head, he caught a glimpse of a funny blooming head peeking around sneakily.
There has to be something!
Baimu was about to rush over to catch that suspicious guy for questioning, but as soon as he lifted his foot, he saw Hydreigon with a haunted expression and slowed his steps.
Thinking about it carefully, as long as it didn't result in serious consequences, such domineering actions wouldn't enhance his bond with Hydreigon but might instead cause the latter to harbor many unpleasant feelings...
In short: The kid has grown up, has its own thoughts, and you need to give it face.
He stopped, no longer pursuing the guy who seemed to be escaping outside.
Noticing he wasn't being chased, Hydreigon sneakily peeked around again, its three big heads popping out like three trumpet flowers, blinking.
Baimu ignored it, his gaze sweeping the surroundings, and inexplicably locked onto a spot.
"Dragapult?"
No reply.
This left him a bit disappointed. Clearly, an idea had suddenly popped into his mind, as if he had sensed a trace of the other's presence, but asking didn't yield any results.
Sigh.
The road is long and arduous.
What Baimu didn't know was that where he had just inquired, the invisible Dragapult restrained its previous frightened expression, breathed a sigh of relief, and never expected its hiding spot would actually be exposed.
Clearly it hadn't used any moves or anything, it makes no sense!
Dragapult was a bit sullen, feeling like its safe house had a small crack pried open and a note stuffed inside; luckily, it didn't respond.
If it had responded, the whole "wall" might have disappeared.
As for the issues Baimu was previously vexed about, not to mention, even though it had seen the whole incident unfold, it didn't know what Baimu had in mind, and even if it knew, it would be hard to tip him off.
Without the boost of anger and not in battle state, it even had to avoid sight lines, let alone communicate directly.
——
In the afternoon.
Baimu was practicing the performances needed for the Gorgeous Competition with Blissey.
Unlike Mawile, who excelled at dance and thus used it as a core point to build upon, Blissey's core characteristics lay in various Transformation Techniques.
Although somewhat conventional, he decided not to be abstract in style, opting instead for the classical creative effects style of the Gorgeous Competition, similar to Xiaoguang's specialties like Flame Ice, Foamed Freeze, and so on.
In fact, ever since Blissey started creating notes with its voice, it had been practicing the usage of flashy moves, only hindered by the yet-to-be-finalized performance process.
"Let's base it on singing."
Baimu opened his sketchbook, which was filled with Blissey and numerous bombastic notes.
"happy?"
The real Blissey lay nearby watching, full of curiosity.
Since it was already the fourth version of the drawing, the Trainer spared no effort designing various move combinations, whether long or short, striving to achieve or even surpass the excellence of Mawile's dances, though never quite satisfied.
Baimu turned and replied, "We must finalize it today, dragging on further, no matter how familiar you are with the moves, mistakes could happen."
Behind him, Dragapult curiously inched closer to the sketchbook, not understanding what the various drawings meant.
Are these flashing things moves? They seem quite beautiful.
Are they powerful?
Coach! I want to learn too!
Dragapult, full of interest, suddenly saw Baimu flip a page, pick up a pencil, and quickly sketch, tearing it off halfway through and discarding it, which puzzled it greatly.
Was this discarded?
Why discard it? It seemed quite good.
Taking advantage of Baimu and Blissey's inattention, Dragapult quietly picked up the crumpled paper from the floor. After looking around to make sure no one noticed it, it gently spread it open, gazing at the flamboyant sketch, its small triangular eyes curving into crescents, forming a goofy smile with its rather amusing triangular head.
So pretty~
Engrossed, Baimu didn't notice its small actions; even if he did, he wouldn't care. The pressing task was to finalize the performance theme for the competition.
And since Blissey was the star of the performance, it was naturally entitled to give opinions—
Mawile had similarly contributed many ideas before since it required Pokémon to ultimately execute the performance.
Of course, overly whimsical ideas that might significantly diminish the gorgeousness wouldn't be adopted.
After two plus hours of hassle, the final version was finally formulated.
Blissey exhaled a sigh of relief, "happy~"
Even though formal practice hadn't begun, it felt like it had already engaged in a long round-robin battle, mentally exhausted from contemplating performance content.
Wanting it to be gorgeous, stable, yet simple and concise...
Blissey always felt it was a choice between two of the three, having two meant the third was impossible, and who would have thought the Trainer truly crafted something that seemed decent.
It particularly admired the Trainer, bringing its little hands together in prayer, eyes sparkling with stars.
"happy~"
"Don't get carried away, the actual execution still falls on you, this sketchbook only contains my boasts; how it ends up relies on you, little miss."
Baimu pinched its curly tufts on either side of its head; he always found these pink curls especially cute, with a soft and fluffy feel, quite comfortable.
"happy!"
Blissey nodded enthusiastically, determined to fully showcase the Trainer's design!
Thus.
The Pink Giant Egg entered a phase of frenzied practice, causing Mawile to become restless watching videos nearby, quickly joining in to share its insights on move linking.
Hearing this, the Altered-color Milotic silently slithered over with a snake-like body to eavesdrop on learning.
It wasn't possible that Mawile felt nothing about Blissey performing alone. After all, it was the one initially eager to join the Gorgeous Competition, and it put Baimu on the map.
But to say its feelings were strong enough to throw a fit would be an exaggeration. Firstly, it wasn't that petty; in the Fallarbor Conference, even though Blissey visibly danced alongside it, in reality, due to Mawile's immense popularity, Blissey essentially served as musical accompaniment, a fact well remembered by Mawile;
Secondly, it also found the Trainer's earlier words very true; given the current difficulty in level elevation, Super Evolution was a treasure mountain right before it.
Its primary task was to dig up this treasure mountain, while everything else should take a back seat.
Rather than the regular city tournaments, it should showcase its talents at magnificent large celebrations.
——
Two days later.
Baimu faced an important matter—
The cooldown period for the simulator was over.
Even though the last simulation never reached the Quartz Conference, it gave him the extremely important talent {Superpower User}.
And the first two ordinary simulations, besides paltry level rewards, respectively bestowed him two somewhat interesting move rewards: [Rapid Return] and [Treasure Gathering Skill].
The former he gave to Hydreigon; apart from it and the Dragapult trio at home, no one else could learn this move, and Dragapult already knew how to use Rapid Return.
As for Treasure Gathering Skill...
Despite his intense curiosity about the move's mechanism, he had no Pokémon capable of learning it at hand.
Clearly, Snorlax and Rapidash can learn this, why can't Blissey?
Takes a bit of offense to my giant egg!
Baimu shook his head, temporarily suppressing the thought and opened the simulator with an expectant demeanor.
[Select Your Birth Region ▽]
Since it was a blue simulation, and he chose Alola last time, this time, it would be the Galar Region.
To be honest.
He was a bit tempted to choose the Kanto Region to revisit a little story about a sickly superpower user, but considering he had to go in order, he suppressed his curiosity.
Click to select gender.
The last pharmacist student was female, so this time it's naturally a male.
Click the Pokémon column.
Hmm.
As expected, it was blank, as the superpower user never even entered the tournament.
Baimu took a deep breath, looking at the talents option below, his finger pressing down steadily.
When the talent appeared, he suddenly covered his mouth, forcibly swallowing back the "damn" that was about to come out, his heart pounding heavily.
Because—
Fixed Talent:
[★★ Restart in Another Region (At least participated in one regional conference)]
This talent not only had two stars, but it was also orange!
Orange Talent!!!