In the painting, a golden-haired girl sat on a garden swing, cradling a Shaymin in her arms.
"The girl in this portrait is truly beautiful," Mewtwo remarked suddenly, a playful tone in its voice. "Feng Che, now that I look at her... she actually looks quite a bit like you."
"Especially the eyes and nose. Even the face shape is very similar," Mewtwo added with a chuckle.
Feng Che studied the golden-haired girl in the portrait more closely and froze. Mewtwo was right; the girl in the painting did share a striking resemblance to his own features.
"That is Aunt Yuan Jia. It's one of the few portraits we have of her," Yuan Na explained as she entered the lounge, noticing Feng Che staring intensely at the image.
"Come, Mr. Feng Che. I'll take you to the Grandmaster Pharmacist, Grandpa Kumamoto. But..." Yuan Na hesitated, a detail Feng Che immediately picked up on.
"Is something wrong?" Feng Che inquired.
"Grandpa Kumamoto has developed dementia recently," Yuan Na admitted. "He lives in a secluded courtyard, waiting for Aunt Yuan Jia's safe return. She's been missing for twenty years, and his long years of yearning turned into a physical ailment... Though his mind wanders, it hasn't affected his professional expertise. However, we cannot stay too long, lest his condition worsens from the stress."
Yuan Na led Feng Che to a conservatory overflowing with vibrant, multicolored flowers.
"This is where Aunt Yuan Jia used to live," Yuan Na introduced. "Grandpa Kumamoto was her butler and a powerful Heavenly King-level trainer. But during the internal rebellion, my aunt went missing and his Pokémon were all killed in battle. Devastated, he poured all his remaining energy into pharmaceutical research, eventually becoming the only Grandmaster Pharmacist in our family—and all of Sinnoh."
"Milady, you've returned!" a voice, raspy with age yet filled with surprise, called out from within the flower house.
A thin, silver-haired old man, dressed impeccably, stepped out. Without a word, he grabbed Feng Che's hand and pulled him toward the conservatory. Feng Che was caught off guard by the old man's sudden strength.
"Grandpa Kumamoto, you've got it wrong! This isn't Aunt Yuan Jia," Yuan Na tried to explain.
"Who are you? Why are you in the Gardenia estate?" Kumamoto snapped at Yuan Na, his face hardening.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Feng Che," Yuan Na whispered. "He's so overwhelmed by grief that he's mistaken you for her. Please, just pretend to be Aunt Yuan Jia for a moment to calm him down. I beg you."
Kumamoto pulled Feng Che inside and slammed the doors shut. They wove through a sea of silver-blue orchids, where several Vivillon with Meadow patterns fluttered about. A Bulbasaur peeked out from the blooms, and a Treecko climbed through the shrubbery. Cottonee and Whimsicott drifted down from above, performing a delicate Fairy Dance. Pink petals from Bellossom and Cherrim rained down like floral snow.
"Milady, this is your favorite conservatory. I have kept it perfectly for you," the butler said. Throughout the room, Feng Che saw more portraits of the golden-haired girl in various sizes.
Feng Che, if you ignore the blonde hair, she really is eighty percent identical to you, Mewtwo said in wonder. Could this 'Yuan Jia' be your relative?
"I don't know. I have no memory of it," Feng Che replied internally. When he transmigrated, he gained the previous host's memories, but everything before the age of three was a thick fog. All he remembered was life in various orphanages. The clothes he wore when he was found had the character for "Feng" (Wind) embroidered on them, which is why the orphanage director named him Feng Che.
Suddenly, Feng Che felt tears involuntarily welling up in his eyes. What is this? Is it a lingering obsession left in this body? he wondered.
Shaking off the feeling, he remembered his purpose. "Grandpa Kumamoto, I wanted to ask a favor. Could you check this Pokémon for any abnormalities?"
"Milady, please call me Butler Kumamoto. I am not worthy of the title 'Grandfather,'" the old man said with a bitter smile.
"Very well, Butler Kumamoto. Please look at this Pokémon." Feng Che released Rowlet, who was still snoring away.
"Let me see..." Kumamoto put on his glasses and examined the owl. He even used a high-grade Leaf Stone to probe its wood-type origin energy.
"Milady, I don't see any physical ailment. Its origin energy is as vast as a fully grown Venusaur," Kumamoto said, echoing Yuan Na's diagnosis.
Then, his tone shifted. "However, I have seen a case like this before. This Rowlet has entered the Nightmare Realm of a Champion-level Darkrai. It can no longer distinguish between reality and the dream world. You must find Darkrai to break the curse."
"But finding Darkrai is incredibly difficult," he continued. "It lives on Newmoon Island, a small isle in the northwest of Sinnoh shrouded in eternal storms. Darkrai was once wounded by humans and does not trust our kind. To make it release the Rowlet, you must pass its trial."
As he spoke, Kumamoto began to yawn repeatedly. Within moments, he leaned back in his chair and fell into a deep sleep. The conservatory doors creaked open, and Yuan Na tiptoed in with a Mime Jr. on her shoulder.
"Mime Jr., place Grandpa Kumamoto on the bed," she whispered. The pink and blue Pokémon used its psychic powers to carefully tuck the old man in.
"Feng Che, let's talk outside," Yuan Na murmured. "I haven't seen him this happy in a long time. Let him sleep."
As they left the East Wing, Feng Che's mind was racing. Mewtwo, is there any way to confirm if I'm related to the Gardenias?
He knew the family was in a dire state. The Flowery Gardens were wilting, the Orb was gone, and the Temple was closing in. If there truly was a blood connection, Feng Che intended to save them—perhaps even bring the Gardenia family under his own banner. He needed a faction to help him collect rare treasures, and a clan of master cultivators and pharmacists was perfect.
If I can link myself to the Gardenia bloodline, things will become much easier.
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