Chapter 385:
Latias's arrival didn't bring any major changes to the Breeding House.
The sun rose in the east and set in the west, and each day grew a little warmer. Although there was still the occasional drizzly rain, the roads in Aogiri Town were now paved right up to everyone's doorsteps. Even the bluestone paths had been widened considerably, so there was no longer any trace of the old phenomenon where one step would sink into mud.
…
March 1st.
End of the month.
Leisurely, another two weeks passed.
Over these two weeks, even without Hayashi Kaede making any deliberate promotions, the news of the Hayashi Breeding House's reopening gradually spread.
Those buying Energy Cubes and participating in the Sky Challenge far exceeded previous years.
The town slowly grew livelier.
It was just a bit hard on Pidgeot.
What was once a clearly relaxed job had suddenly become somewhat busy.
Lunch had just finished today.
It was now rest and nap time.
With the arrival of spring, Milotic and Primarina no longer needed to live in the water tank. At their request, Hayashi Kaede moved them back to the reservoir.
Gardevoir was taking Latias into the sky, teaching it how to control its Confusion.
Blaziken moved a small chair and sat by the reservoir, seemingly chatting with Steenee.
Primarina also quietly poked its head out.
Meowscarada was in the Berry Plantation.
The little sister Indeedee was planting flowers in the garden, while Serperior thoughtfully applied Grassy Terrain nearby.
Because by this time, regardless of Hayashi Kaede's intentions, the Combee strongly insisted on coming out to gather nectar.
Strangely enough...
After one winter, among the five Combee, one actually had a small red dot appear on its panel.
At first, Hayashi Kaede thought Mew had returned and secretly transformed into a Combee to play a trick on him.
But after counting the Combee, the number hadn't changed. Finally, he used the [Eye of Exploration] to check.
That's when he realized it wasn't Mew returning.
But rather... after one winter, one male Combee in the group had automatically changed into a female Combee.
It had undergone a gender change!
Although he'd heard about this phenomenon in textbooks before – that in the wild, if a Combee colony lacks a female, the male Combee will automatically change gender to become female – he never expected it to happen with domesticated ones too.
And that female Combee, after inspecting the nectar collected by the male Combee, directly evolved into a Vespiquen.
Moreover...
Within two days, new life began budding in the honeycomb beneath Vespiquen.
It even flew over happily to show Hayashi Kaede...
Although startled and unsure how it managed to conceived these new lives, after counting how many new Combee were about to be born,
Hayashi Kaede still made plans.
Hence, the current scene: expanding the garden and still planning to plant flowers on both sides of the external bluestone path.
Hmm, Steenee's mother, Tsareena, was also helping.
It had also learned Grassy Terrain.
Although its power was much weaker compared to Serperior's.
Perhaps because it hadn't been part of the plantation for long, Tsareena always seemed a bit reserved.
It often preferred to sit and watch everyone interact.
Fortunately, after seeing its mother return, Steenee became much more active, constantly taking its mother around, either chatting with this Pokémon or that, or involving it in juice production.
As for Alolan Ninetales and Eevee...
Since spring arrived and the weather warmed, their figures were rarely seen in the plantation anymore.
They went outside to find places to train and battle.
All for their goal of challenging Rayquaza!
They said they wanted to work hard and strive to take down that "long dragon" someday.
To that end, they even recruited two Dragon-type Pokémon.
Having Salamence act as the opponent, while Goodra served as their teammate.
At first, Salamence was dismissive, thinking these little guys didn't know their limits, daring to challenge it?
In this plantation, aside from Mewtwo and that Gardevoir, who could stand against it?
But after eating one Blizzard, it immediately winced in pain, while its own Dragon Pulse only caused minor injuries to Alolan Ninetales.
This made Salamence's jaw drop on the spot, its face full of disbelief.
It hadn't gone to the Pokémon League Conference, so it naturally didn't know about Alolan Ninetales's performance.
This fox, although it had a type advantage, was one Salamence had watched grow up.
Back then, it was tiny, always running around with a few Eevee, and its strength didn't seem like much.
Even though it had evolved now, it hadn't been that long since its evolution!
How could its energy fluctuation suddenly be strong enough to hurt it?
Salamence instantly felt the unevenness of the world.
It had taken decades for it to become this strong!
And during the Bagon stage, it trained hard every day to get stronger!
This fox just ate, drank, and played around all day, only recently putting in some effort.
Initially, it refused to accept it, thinking once or twice was just a fluke. But as it happened more often, the expression on Salamence's face slowly shifted from confused to utterly bewildered.
It couldn't understand why Alolan Ninetales could become so strong in such a short time.
Hayashi Kaede actually noticed these changes.
Now, here's the interesting part.
Salamence quickly pinpointed the key factor – the Trainer's food!
Specifically, the special food that Trainer Hayashi Kaede had been preparing for Alolan Ninetales, giving it extra support.
Within the plantation, it was well-known that the food Hayashi Kaede made could give them various enhancements, including but not limited to temporary stat boosts and permanent ability increases.
Only this could explain why Alolan Ninetales had become so powerful in such a short time!
Just like that Pidgeot, which had grown even bigger than it was.
But...
Even knowing this, Salamence didn't know how to bring it up with Hayashi Kaede.
It also wanted to grow stronger.
Don't be fooled by its current routine of eating and sleeping; at its level, simple training was largely insignificant.
Its moves were all honed in the wild; decades of combat instinct had brought its move proficiency to near peak levels.
So, it was better to just eat and sleep.
....
Thinking about these things, Hayashi Kaede's movements slowed.
He saw right through Salamence's little thoughts.
But he wanted to wait for Salamence to speak up first.
After all, whether the goal of getting stronger was for revenge or something else, Hayashi Kaede felt the meaning would change if he brought it up himself.
Kaede felt that Salamence need to temper its impatience a little.
Thinking this, Hayashi Kaede nodded to himself.
He still had that Silver Feather from Lugia, after all.