It must be said—though Chairman Rose has his petty schemes and enjoys manipulating others, he truly knows how to handle people.
"So, this is the gift he sent?"
Hayashi raised an eyebrow as he looked at the gift box on the table, delivered by a black-suited bodyguard. "Did you guys open it?"
Hisako shook her head with a smile. "Since it's a gift for all of us, we should wait until everyone's here before opening it!"
Erina nodded in agreement. "Exactly! The atmosphere is best when we open it together!"
Hayashi grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Then I'll open it now?"
Sabrina urged impatiently, "Hurry up and open it already."
She had wanted to unwrap the gift half an hour ago, but Hayashi had stayed up too late playing Overcooked with Erina last night and slept in until past eight—damn it, is having a girlfriend so special? I swear, I'll use my psychic powers to torment your prostate until you turn gay!
At this moment, Sabrina's heart was filled with seething, dark emotions.
"Alright, here we go!"
Hayashi worked quickly—first snipping the ribbon with scissors, then shouting "Here we go!" as he tore the wrapping paper to shreds.
Hisako: "Whoa, so rough!"
Even Erina couldn't help commenting, "What a lack of ceremony!"
Shouldn't you gently untie the ribbon and carefully unfold the wrapping paper in order? What's with the reckless tearing!?
Hayashi retorted shamelessly, "You guys just don't get it! This is the real thrill of opening packages!"
Ceremony? What's the point of ceremony? The joy is in the tearing! Should I light incense, take a bath, and bow three times before respectfully unveiling my box cutter?
Not happening!
Under the trio's watchful eyes, Hayashi roughly opened the cardboard box, revealing its contents—
Two Poké Balls, one Prism Scale, two Fire Stones, and one Ice Stone.
Along with a greeting card.
Hayashi picked up the card, skimmed it, then raised an eyebrow and waved it at Erina and the others. "Chairman Rose says that during yesterday's gathering, he noticed our team includes Vulpix, Growlithe, and Feebas, so he prepared suitable evolution items for us..."
The two Fire Stones were for Pinocchio and Growlithe; the Ice Stone for Klahh; and the Prism Scale for Feebas.
"...In addition, he learned from Hisako that Sabrina and I were planning to catch a Rookidee with the Mirror Armor ability, and he had already prepared them for us." Hayashi continued with an impressed expression, "Yes, both were carefully selected—Rookidee that inherited Tailwind and Roost."
Hearing Hayashi's words, the other three couldn't help but raise their eyebrows in surprise.
Sabrina: "Tsk, that's quite the investment!"
Although Rookidee was only as rare as a common regional bird Pokémon, having the Hidden Ability plus inherited Tailwind and Roost skyrocketed their value!
Hisako wore a solemn expression: "He's a remarkable person."
She had told Chairman Rose that their group were merely ordinary researchers, which was why they were assigned to the Galar region for ecological studies. Yet despite this, Chairman Rose still presented them with such lavish gifts.
Erina picked up the Ice Stone and Prism Scale on the table with curiosity and asked, "With these two items, can Klahh and Feebas evolve now?"
In this world, there was no rule like "a Pokémon can only learn certain moves before evolving," so wealthy individuals could even evolve Vulpix right after its infancy and then proceed with training.
Hayashi leaned in and said, "Klahh can evolve directly, but I'm not too sure about Feebas—how exactly to measure its Beauty stat. We might have to ask Professor Oak when we get back."
Admittedly, Hayashi wasn't very enthusiastic about participating in Pokémon Contests in the games, so he only knew how to raise Beauty but not how to test it specifically.
Erina wrinkled her nose and said, "Let's just give the Prism Scale to Feebas first! If it can evolve, great. If not, we'll just keep working on its Beauty stat."
After all, the Pokémon world wasn't some money-grabbing mobile game where evolution attempts consumed the evolution items, so Erina could safely attach the Prism Scale to Feebas directly.
Hisako Arato also cheerfully added, "Then I'll have Pinocchio evolve later too! Little Vulpix is going to become Big Vulpix!"
...
...
In the courtyard.
Erina and Hisako stood eagerly before Klahh and Pinocchio.
"Pinocchio—"
"Klahh—"
"Evolve!" x2
Simultaneously, the two placed the evolution stones on the foreheads of their Vulpix.
In the next moment, accompanied by a dazzling white light of evolution, the bodies of the two Vulpix rapidly elongated and grew. Their limbs became slender, and the number of their tails increased...
A few seconds later, the light faded, revealing two elegant large foxes—one golden and one white—standing before Erina and Hisako.
"Woo—" x2
With voices much deeper than before, the two foxes stood before their respective trainers, gazing at them with joyful eyes.
"So... so beautiful—"
Hisako murmured.
If Pinocchio and Klahh as Vulpix were as cute as "young girls" who hadn't yet grown up, then their evolved Ninetales forms exuded the mature, alluring, and enchanting aura of "older sisters."
"Now it's my turn—"
Hayashi grinned mischievously, raising the Fire Stone high in his hand as he proclaimed loudly, "Tear through the pitch-black darkness, burn heaven and earth to ashes! O solitary and absolute king! Tremble before its majestic might that overlooks all creation! Evolution summon! Arcanine—"
As Hayashi chanted, he pressed the Fire Stone onto Growlithe's head. A brilliant white light erupted from Growlithe's body, identical to when Vulpix had evolved earlier.
"Woof—wooo!"
The moment the light faded, the now-evolved Arcanine threw its head back with a mighty howl, standing imposingly before Hayashi—only for this majestic display to last mere seconds before it began panting happily, tongue lolling out in an utterly endearing manner.
"Looking mighty impressive now—" Hayashi reached out with both hands, vigorously rubbing Arcanine's head from side to side while cheerfully chanting, "Good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy—"
Secret Technique: Furious Head Rubs!
"Wooof—!"
Arcanine let out a helpless whimper, though its tone suggested it wasn't uncomfortable—apparently, its defense had significantly improved post-evolution.
Nearby, Sabrina approached, eyeing the sizes of Pinocchio, Klahh, and Arcanine before remarking, "Seems you've raised them quite well—almost too well. They're practically overfed!"
Hisako: "How so?"
Sabrina clicked her tongue. "Normally, Ninetales stands about 1.1 meters tall, but yours are pushing 1.4 meters. And while Arcanine averages 1.9 meters, yours has already surpassed 2 meters."
This was undeniably excessive growth.
Hayashi planted his hands on his hips, puffing out his chest proudly. "Of course! Every meal at our place is lovingly prepared by Erina herself. With such nutritious food, it's only natural they'd grow this well!"
'This goes beyond just "growing well"—' Sabrina's eye twitched as she covered her face. "Your Pokémon barely undergo any regular training. No matter how good their diet is, they shouldn't develop like this..."
It's like cultivation novels—even if you could afford to snack on immortal pills like candy, you'd still need to refine their energy. This isn't some game where you gulp down EXP capsules.
Hayashi blinked innocently. "They can't?"
Sabrina deadpanned, "If simply eating delicious food could achieve this, what would be the point of trainers?"
Apologize to trainers worldwide right now!
Hisako hesitated before asking Sabrina, "Sabrina-chan, are you suggesting... this evolution isn't normal?"
"I can't say for certain, but it's definitely unusual." Sabrina frowned. "I've never seen Pokémon reach this level without training, just by eating. Though considering the unprecedented quality of the Pokéblocks you make, that might explain it."
Applying gourmet world culinary techniques to create Pokéblocks was practically cheating—a crushing superiority. Even what Erina dismissed as "failures," "defective batches," or "experimental products" surpassed any Pokéblock Sabrina had ever encountered before.
So she wasn't sure whether this Pokéblock that surpassed perfect quality would cause any anomalies, allowing Pokémon to break evolutionary limits.
Hayashi waved his hand dismissively and said, "We're not actual Pokémon researchers anyway. If we can't figure it out, then we won't! We'll just toss the problem to Professor Oak and let him go bald over it! Hehehe—"
Hisako said helplessly, "If Professor Oak hears that, he'd be furious, wouldn't he?"
"I think he'd start researching while cursing! After all, he can't resist an unsolved mystery—" Hayashi had a firm grasp on the psychology of researchers like Professor Oak. "More importantly, Erina, aren't you going to try evolving your Feebas?"
"Oh, right—"
Erina quickly released her Feebas and carefully placed it into the fish tank.
"Blub—"
Feebas blew a bubble and stared blankly at Erina with its vacant, yet somehow wise-looking eyes, as if asking why it had been summoned—hadn't it just finished eating?
"Feebas, put this on—"
Erina pulled out a milky-white scale from her pocket that shimmered with a rainbow of colors under the sunlight. "This is a Prism Scale! Once you wear it, you'll eventually evolve into a Milotic!"
"Blub!"
The moment Feebas saw the Prism Scale, its usual sluggishness vanished. It thrashed around as if electrified, splashing water everywhere.
"Calm down, I'll give it to you—" Erina wiped the water from her face in annoyance before tossing the Prism Scale into the tank.
"Blub—"
Feebas hurriedly swam over, grabbed the scale with its mouth, and eagerly wriggled to tuck it among its own scales. Then, it happily twisted its body in the tank.
It was like a little girl who had just received a pretty piece of jewelry, asking her mother, "Mom, do I look pretty in this?"
Erina smiled. "You look wonderful! My Feebas is definitely the most beautiful!"
"Blub!"
The moment those words left her mouth, Feebas erupted in a dazzling white light.
Everyone: "It's—it's evolving!!!"
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