Nowadays, in order to facilitate Pokémon breeding, Lum Berries are often cultivated by large agricultural operations. The advantage is that it allows fast, high-efficiency production to meet the demand of Pokémon Trainers.
But in the wild, Lum Berries are incredibly difficult to grow. Their natural environment has strict requirements, and they're often guarded or preemptively harvested by wild Pokémon that store berries.
Mai had no idea what kind of effort Eevee had put in to find so many Lum Berries. All she could do was carefully hug the filthy Eevee and whisper a soft "thank you" in her ear; that was the only thing she could offer in return.
After hearing Mai recount that past event, Eevee covered her face with her fluffy tail in embarrassment.
At the time, she had absolutely no understanding of the structural differences between human and Pokémon bodies... In her mind, if eating a Lum Berry cured her, it should work for Mai too.
Now that she looked back on it, it was mortifying.
Corsola leaned in mischievously and bumped shoulders with Eevee, the meaning obvious: "Classic you."
"You actually managed to secretly raise two Pokémon? That's impressive… I can barely handle keeping one under wraps," Luther said.
He remembered once hearing a story from a friend about hiding a pet hamster at home.
At first, everything went smoothly, his family was none the wiser. But then one night during dinner, his dad hesitated and said, "I swear the house is haunted lately. When you're not home, I keep hearing something rolling around in your room…"
Luther almost spit out his food. During the family's post-dinner room inspection, the hamster was discovered… Fortunately, his family was understanding and allowed him to keep it.
Mai shook her head. "It's fine with just one. But once you're hiding two, it gets way harder."
As Mai recovered through rest, she hit a growth spurt. Her appetite increased drastically. Even though her family upped her meal portions, she was constantly still hungry.
At first, her family thought it was great, Mai was eating well and recovering which was a good sign.
But her father soon realized something was off. The first clue? Mai, not the best at scheming, used her father's name to order Pokémon food. She ordered so much that she had to haul it home in batches, which caught the family's attention.
Then there were the weird sounds in Mai's room late at night. It sounded like something voraciously gnawing on food. But when the family doctor opened the door to check, nothing seemed out of place.
Once might be a coincidence. Twice or three times…
Mai's father eventually conducted a full-scale inspection, under the bed, behind the bookshelf, even inside boxes of books.
Out of respect for his daughter, who was now old enough to understand gender privacy, he restrained himself from opening the wardrobe. Instead, he told Mai to rest and left the room.
As usual, Mai waited until she saw him drive away before opening the wardrobe to let her two nearly-suffocated companions out.
Mai was already thinking about what games to play with Corsola and Eevee today. She didn't realize, her father hadn't actually left.
Someone else had driven off in the car. Her father had only faked his departure and had been waiting outside the whole time.
Caught red-handed, Mai was immediately scolded, scolded for being reckless with her health, for not understanding how worried he was.
Mai, Eevee, and Corsola all lowered their heads and silently endured the storm.
Mai had long been sick of hiding like this. She wanted to come clean, but didn't know how to bring it up.
Now that the secret was exposed, maybe this was her chance.
She hoped her family would allow her to officially raise Pokémon again.
But then her father said something that left her stunned.
"Let Corsola and Eevee go," Mai said with a wry smile, mimicking her father's tone.
"My only reaction was, 'No way.' Corsola was the one I painstakingly hatched, and Eevee finally found her way to me, there's no way I'd let anyone take them from me. No one."
"My dad was very firm. Since my health had just started improving, he kept stressing it was 'for my own good.' I kept promising that I'd be a good girl as long as I could keep Corsola and Eevee, but it didn't work."
Mai's smile grew bitter.
"When you told me about Shiran before," she continued, "I actually think my dad's kind of like him. He doesn't really understand what I want. I wanted companionship, so he made sure family members came to play with me every day. I said I wanted to play games, like, two-player ones, so he bought them and made the family play with me."
Luther sighed, unsure of how to respond.
"Now I have Corsola and Eevee with me. I'm happy every day, and my health is getting better. And then he comes in with a 'for your own good' and tries to take them away."
"But he agreed in the end, didn't he?" Luther said, patting Eevee, who was sitting nearby. "They're here with you now, aren't they?"
Mai didn't answer. She kept speaking:
"That night, before my dad could decide where to send Corsola and Eevee, I snuck out with them and ran away from home."
Luther stared at her in shock. 'What…?'
"I didn't actually know where I was going or where I could go. My backpack was full of Corsola and Eevee's favorite food and toys. I just picked a direction and kept walking… Eventually, I got lost in the forest."
Mai bit into a now-cold skewer of meat and chewed.
"I couldn't find a way out, and the food ran low. Every day, I had to worry about being ambushed by wild Pokémon. But we got lucky, we found a tree hollow full of berries. That helped us get by."
"The scariest moment was when an Ursaring tried to force its way into the hollow. Corsola was facing off with it when a passing Aggron drove it away. At Eevee's pleading, Aggron guided us out of the forest. Once we got out, a passing Trainer found us."
"After that, I was taken to the police station. They contacted my family, confirmed my identity, and sent me home." Mai smiled proudly. "And after that, my dad let me raise Pokémon."
Mai said it lightly, like it was nothing, but Luther felt chills down his spine.
A sickly child, barely ten years old, ran away from home, wandered into the forest with zero survival experience, hid in a tree hollow, and faced off against wild Pokémon…
How many Pokémon territories had she wandered through? How many invisible dangers had she dodged?
As for that so-called "luck"…
Ursaring are known to hoard food. They wander forests collecting berries and storing them in safe places. Mai had unknowingly taken over Ursaring's stash and its tree hollow.
That the Ursaring didn't go berserk and storm in wasn't because of Corsola. It was because of the Aggron lurking nearby, exerting enough pressure that Ursaring thought twice. It might've even mistakenly believed Mai was Aggron's Trainer.
It was a total chain of lucky coincidences that kept Mai from disaster.
The only real act of kindness was from that Aggron. It must've genuinely meant no harm to humans, otherwise it never would've helped.
Truly a child of fate. Her luck was off the charts, just like always, from childhood till now.
If Luther had been in that situation? He'd be dead and reborn in another world by now.
But Mai's reckless adventure succeeded. Through sheer stubborn action, she finally made her father understand her resolve.
He had always seen her as a child. That was the first time he realized, Mai had grown up. She had her own thoughts and decisions.
He chose to compromise.
But by then, he had already lost Mai's trust.
Because in Mai's heart, what she gained was the result of her own effort, not her father's love.
(End of Chapter)
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