Chapter 167. Natsume Emerges from Seclusion
Mewtwo vanished with the cloned Pokémon, and Mew had slipped away at some point as well.
After escorting Nurse Joy back to Vermilion City, Natsume returned to Pallet Town as fast as he could.
The trip there and back cost him nearly half a month.
The time left for writing his papers was not much.
In a blink, a month had passed.
Professor Oak's Laboratory.
"Ah—"
Natsume stepped out of his room with a yawn.
He looked a bit haggard, unshaven, with dark circles under his eyes.
Over this month, he rushed out his papers on the Poké Ball, the Great Ball, the Ultra Ball, and Rotom (motorcycle).
The data were complete, but he couldn't just turn them in like that.
He still had to visualize the data with charts and attach analyses of the results.
It was a pain, and by the end Natsume felt dazed, and food had lost all taste.
Fortunately, as of today, he had finished everything and already submitted it to the League for a round of review.
Natsume took a deep breath to relax, when his brow suddenly furrowed.
There was a faint burnt smell in the air.
[Pallet Constitution status has an update!]
All month long, Natsume had been so tense he even muted system messages.
The moment he opened them, he saw his poison resistance had risen to the 1-Ash level.
Strange.
How did that go up?
Natsume was puzzled.
He'd done nothing but grind out papers this month.
"Natsume, you're out of seclusion!"
The main door opened, and Ash Ketchum and his group appeared with their backpacks.
"There's some weird smell in the air."
As she walked in, Misty twitched her nose.
"Based on my experience, that's the smell of something burned in the kitchen," Brock said with great certainty.
They followed the scent to the kitchen.
Inside, Honora stood at a stove as if cooking something.
"Honora, what are you doing?" Ash craned his neck curiously.
"Making breakfast, Mr. Natsume!"
Honora hurriedly turned her back, but it was too late to hide it.
In the frying pan was a charred lump of carbon.
"Looks like you've solved the problem of coal being a non-renewable resource."
Natsume said it and left.
He had thought some instrument had burned out.
No wonder the meals Honora had sent over for the past month tasted bitter to Natsume.
But back then time was tight, and he didn't dwell on it.
Food was food.
Seeing Natsume leave, Honora downcastly dumped the heap of "coal" into the trash.
Normally, breakfast was made by Natsume.
The taste was average, but edible.
A month ago, when Natsume shut himself in, Honora had volunteered to take on the task.
The moment the finished dish came out, half her heart died.
What if Mr. Natsume liked it?
Natsume ate it up in no time right in front of her.
But now, it seemed Mr. Natsume simply wasn't picky.
"Natsume, it's great that you're out!"
Professor Westwood V looked at Natsume with tears in his eyes, a ring of black soot still at the corner of his mouth.
"Yes, but Professor Westwood V, we're planning to depart for the Indigo Plateau."
Natsume sat down as he spoke.
"Indigo Plateau?" Westwood blinked in surprise.
"Speaking of that, it reminds me of something."
Accepting the small bread roll Brock handed over, Westwood began:
"During the month you were shut in, Granny Agatha contacted Professor Oak's Laboratory several times.
You can give her a call now."
"Granny Agatha?" Natsume blinked.
"Professor Westwood V, when you video-called, was Gengar there?"
"Gengar?" Westwood's expression turned a little odd.
"They… you can have a look in the back yard."
They?
Natsume paused, then realized Westwood meant his own bunch of Pokémon.
Aside from the two Rotom helping him, Natsume had thrown the rest of his Pokémon into the back yard.
Gathered together, there shouldn't be any issues, right?
In the back yard—
Center-parted was standing on Dragonite's head like a lion surveying his domain.
Not far off, in the trees and the grass, Pokémon poked their heads out, peeking timidly at center-parted.
"Pika-pi-ah!" The instant it saw Natsume, center-parted thumped its chest.
Call me the Pikachu King!
Natsume instantly understood what it meant, and his face went a bit odd.
The next second, a stampede of ten thousand Wooloo thundered through center-parted's mind.
"Pika!"
Center-parted's face changed.
It clutched its head in pain and tumbled off Dragonite's head.
Uh-oh.
The Trainer's telekinesis seems to have gone up by who knows how many tiers!
"Hmm?" Dragonite reached out, puzzled, and caught it.
"You haven't undergone special training for a month.
Looks like you've had it easy, and even had time to throw your weight around."
Natsume grabbed center-parted in one hand.
He had learned quite a bit from Westwood just now.
Righteous iron fist descended, and center-parted didn't dare to counter with its Rest strategy.
If it did, the Trainer might summon a stampede of ten thousand Tauros to run it over.
"Bang!"
Center-parted's eyes welled up with tears.
It only wanted to rule the whole back yard and make all Pokémon pay tribute to it.
Is that really "throwing your weight around"?
"Where are Diglett and Gengar?"
Natsume looked left and right but didn't see them.
"They should be in the Berry grove," Professor Westwood V said, taking out an old-fashioned pipe and puffing on it once.
"Speaking of which, that Gengar is a real expert!"
"Huh?" Natsume didn't catch his meaning, and Westwood had already gone back into the lab.
Left with no choice, Natsume headed for the Berry grove to look for the two Pokémon.
Under one sour-flavored Berry tree, Natsume did not find Diglett.
"Strange.
Not here?"
He frowned and, without looking back, walked toward the Tamato Berry patch.
Unexpectedly, there was no sign of Gengar here!
However, every Tamato Berry had been picked clean.
Natsume glanced at the picking marks.
Most likely half a month ago.
There were also bits of Black Sludge residue on the ground.
Don't tell me Gengar used up all these Tamato Berries.
Following the traces, Natsume moved on.
The back yard of Professor Oak's Laboratory was extensive, connecting all the way to the Lowview Range, with a variety of habitats suitable for Pokémon.
If Natsume wanted to freeload a fully supported research facility from League subsidies and call it his own, he had to fulfill certain obligations.
Besides raising beginner-friendly Pokémon, he had to care for some Pokémon that Trainers sent in, free of charge.
So site selection for the lab mattered a lot.
From the very start, Natsume chose Pallet Town.
Over the past two days, he had been thinking that the concrete location could be on the far side of the mountain.
Whoosh—
A purple, humanoid silhouette appeared before Natsume.
"Natsume, why are you here?"
"Mewtwo, why are you here?"
They spoke in unison.
After a moment, Mewtwo reacted first, recalling what Natsume had said that day about some research institute.
So this was the place.
It had planned to lead the cloned Pokémon to a stable new home, and the snow-capped region here seemed promising.
"So, have you had a change of heart?
Planning to become a researcher who explores nature and the relationship between Pokémon and humans?" Natsume asked.
Mewtwo's ears twitched.
It hesitated for a moment, then shook its head.
"No.
I want to be alone for now.
I will take the cloned Pokémon to the far side of the mountain."
With that, Mewtwo's figure vanished.
The far side of the mountain… hmm, that's my turf, too.
Natsume was speechless and continued searching for Gengar and Diglett.
At last, he found them on a patch of barren ground.
Diglett was digging.
Gengar was using telekinesis to place Tamato Berries into pit after pit.
For each Tamato Berry buried, Gengar drew over a small smear of black "soil" and a thin trickle of liquid into the hole.
According to Professor Westwood V, Gengar and Diglett had been heading out at dawn and returning at dusk these days, being all mysterious.
Judging from the setup, they looked quite methodical.
Natsume went closer for a look and then froze in place.
That wasn't soil.
It was Black Sludge.
And the "water" wasn't water.
It was Professor Oak's prized cellar wine.
"Mm… planting this way won't grow Tamato Berries," Natsume reminded them.
"Gen-ga, gen-ga!" Gengar waved it off, gesturing excitedly.
"You say you're not planting Tamato Berries but 'wine-flavored Spicy Mud trees'?" Natsume's mouth twitched.
"Putting these things together can only grow Tamato Berries."
He shook his head.
And at Gengar's current level of farming, they'd be lucky to get sprouts.
"Gen… ga."
Gengar's excitement vanished at once.
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