At the Hoenn region's Fallarbor Town Contest Hall, Ariel had been feeling incredibly frustrated lately.
No matter what she tried, her Eevee just couldn't seem to grasp any Fairy-type moves.
Eevee's genetics are extremely unstable. They're influenced by their environment, energy sources, and even day and night cycles, causing them to evolve into completely different forms.
Ariel and Eevee's dream was to become the world's top Coordinator, and ever since hatching and gaining awareness, Eevee had been working hard toward evolving into Sylveon.
But so far, nothing had worked.
"At this rate, we're going to miss this year's Contest!" Ariel said, clearly distressed.
"Eeeeee..." Little Eevee was just as discouraged. Not being able to evolve into Sylveon had really gotten it down.
Seeing this, Ariel gently rubbed Eevee's head and comforted it: "Don't be sad, you've been working so hard!"
Even as she said this, though, Ariel was worried that Eevee might end up evolving into Espeon or Umbreon for other reasons.
Hyde, her traveling companion, suggested: "Why don't we find a Breeder to help us out?"
A Breeder...
Ariel suddenly remembered the Daycare she'd seen on the road to Fallarbor Town a couple days ago.
Generally speaking, Daycares could help teach Pokémon certain moves too.
The problem was, that particular Daycare had looked pretty run-down, like it had been abandoned for ages. She wasn't sure if it would even work, and frankly, it didn't inspire much confidence.
But at this point, she didn't have any other options. Fallarbor Town was mainly populated by Trainers and Coordinators, and they didn't know any skilled Breeders who could help teach Eevee Fairy-type moves.
Whatever. She'd go take a look first. If it worked out, great. If not, they'd figure out something else!
Ariel made up her mind and immediately left town, heading west along the same road they'd come from. After quite a bit of walking, she finally spotted that familiar building up ahead.
"Huh? Am I seeing things? This place looks totally different!"
As Ariel got closer, she realized it wasn't her imagination at all. The entire Daycare had been completely renovated.
There was an "Open for Business" sign hanging on the door, and on the right side was a small blackboard listing the services the Daycare currently offered.
[Daycare Main Services]
[1. Pokémon Boarding]
[2. Currently Teachable Moves: Baby-Doll Eyes, Tackle]
[3. Rare Item Trading Available: Common Stones, Big Root]
[4. Food & Lodging]
Ariel's eyes immediately locked onto "Baby-Doll Eyes."
Baby-Doll Eyes was a Fairy-type move! If Eevee could learn it, then it could successfully evolve into Sylveon!
"Hey there!" Ariel called out excitedly.
She pushed open the door and shouted inside.
Kawaki, who had been reading books about Pokémon breeding, looked up to see a familiar green-haired girl standing in the doorway.
It was the Trainer who had passed by the Daycare a couple days ago, carrying an Eevee.
"Welcome," Kawaki said.
Ariel rushed up to him excitedly and asked: "Can you really teach Baby-Doll Eyes here?"
"Of course." Kawaki smiled slightly.
"I want to learn it!" Ariel said immediately.
But the next second, Hyde and Sye, who had come with her, quickly pulled her aside.
The three of them huddled together, whispering loudly.
"Hey, doesn't something seem off about this?"
"This Daycare is so empty!"
Normal Daycares usually housed lots of Pokémon, but this place only had one Bewear.
Even stranger, the so-called owner looked like just a little kid. Was he even ten years old yet?
Teaching Pokémon moves wasn't exactly easy. Even experienced, veteran Breeders couldn't guarantee they could get a Pokémon to learn a specific move.
Could this kid, who was only ten years old and probably younger than them, really pull it off?
"He's not a scammer, is he?" Sye couldn't help saying.
After Sye's reminder, Ariel finally snapped back to reality.
The three of them turned to look at the owner behind the counter.
Kawaki: "..."
But he focused his gaze on the Eevee perched on the girl's shoulder and slowly began to speak:
"Eevee's genetics are extremely unstable. Both their surrounding environment and their relationship with their Trainer can trigger evolution."
"A Fire Stone will make Eevee evolve into Flareon, a Water Stone into Vaporeon. An Eevee with a close enough bond to its Trainer will evolve into Espeon during the day, or Umbreon at night. As for Sylveon, the evolution conditions are quite demanding."
Kawaki paused here, then smiled and asked: "If I'm not mistaken, you want to learn Baby-Doll Eyes because you're hoping this Eevee will evolve into Sylveon, right?"
Hearing this, all three of them were slightly stunned.
Sye, who was a novice Breeder himself, could hardly believe it.
So... so professional!
This information definitely wasn't something an ordinary ten-year-old could just rattle off!
Even more shocking was that while researchers from various regions had been studying this, some of Eevee's evolution conditions still didn't have definitive answers.
Take Espeon, for instance. People only knew that if Eevee evolved during the day, it would become Espeon, and if it evolved at night, it would become Umbreon.
But sometimes Eevee would evolve into Sylveon during the day instead...
Through comparative research, scholars had discovered that for Eevee to evolve into Sylveon, it needed to know a Fairy-type move first.
But even then, just knowing a Fairy-type move beforehand didn't guarantee a 100% Sylveon evolution.
There were plenty of cases where Eevee knew Fairy-type moves but still evolved into Espeon.
Could friendship levels and the depth of the relationship with the Trainer also affect Eevee's evolutionary form?
This owner could explain it all so precisely... Was he just talking nonsense, or was all of this actually true?
The former would be one thing, but if it was the latter, that would be pretty scary.
If these specific conditions were real, it would definitely cause a huge stir in the outside world.
Who exactly was this owner? Sye felt somewhat shocked.
But Ariel wasn't thinking about all that. When she heard Kawaki's question, she nodded repeatedly: "That's right!"
Kawaki smiled slightly. "Want to give it a try?"
Ariel asked: "How much would it cost to learn Baby-Doll Eyes?"
Kawaki wasn't really sure how other Daycares priced their move-teaching services since he hadn't had a chance to do field research yet, so he just threw out a number.
"₽5,000."
"₽5,000?!" Ariel exclaimed.
Kawaki raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. Had he priced it too high?
But the next second, he heard Ariel say: "That's so cheap! Other Daycares charge at least ₽10,000 per move!" And that's with no guarantee they can actually teach it.
Kawaki was quick on the uptake and immediately added: "Since you're the first customer since this Daycare opened, I'm giving you a discount."
"Wow!" Ariel's eyes widened.
What a steal!
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones