Lumiere looked at the purple balloon Pokémon that had suddenly appeared, and information about it surfaced before his eyes…
〔Pokémon: Drifloon ♀〕
〔Type: Ghost + Flying〕
〔Ability: Flare Boost (When burned, since the balloon is about to explode, the power of its special moves increases)〕
〔Moves: Astonish, Minimize, Gust, Focus Energy, Payback, Hex〕
〔Status: Normal〕
〔Affection: 50 (It really, really likes you and wants to play with you)〕
"Play together…"
As for Drifloon, Lumiere remembered quite a few rumors about this kind of Pokémon.
It was said to be a Pokémon formed from the gathered souls of humans or other Pokémon.
Because it drifted around aimlessly, legends called it a "signpost for souls." If children mistook it for a balloon, they would vanish without a trace.
In the Pokémon School of the Alola region, there were even urban legends about Drifloon.
After uncovering the truths behind the six major mysteries—Dark Night Souls, Lord Pika, Horror Broadcast, the Otherworld Staircase, the Cursed Diary, and the Yokai Classroom—the school's seventh mystery would appear: a little girl taken away by Drifloon!
That was why wild Ghost-type Pokémon were extremely dangerous. When encountered in the wild, one could never lower their guard!
Fortunately, Drifloon didn't like attacking people directly. Instead, it preferred to lure its prey and then carry them away—except for that bunch from the Hisui region…
"Keep poking me with the string—are you trying to get me to grab it? I'm not a kid, you know…"
Lumiere felt a bit speechless, but at that moment, he noticed that Togepi seemed even more frightened.
It seemed the truth was already clear. Drifloon had been carrying Togepi through the air, but it escaped and just happened to fall down and smash into his head.
Although Drifloon was known to be interested only in lightweight children, there was never any mention that it wouldn't feel the same way about small Pokémon.
Perhaps realizing that Lumiere didn't intend to grab it, Drifloon shifted its target and reached toward Rowlet instead.
"Isn't this annoying? Shoo, shoo. If you're not here to fight, then leave. Don't disturb our rest," Lumiere said, waving his hand to chase Drifloon away.
Unexpectedly, Rowlet suddenly, blank-faced, grabbed the two pink hearts at the ends of Drifloon's strings with its wings.
"???"
Seeing its prey take the bait, Drifloon's beady eyes lit up with excitement. It tugged on Rowlet and started flying upward.
"Damn it! Put it down!"
Lumiere lunged forward and hugged Rowlet tightly, yanking it back. He hadn't expected that Drifloon, though small, was surprisingly strong—it actually dragged him nearly a meter along the ground.
"Don't look down on me!" Lumiere gritted his teeth and used every ounce of strength he had!
With unstoppable momentum and full power, he dragged himself back to his original position—and even managed to pull forward a little.
Drifloon refused to give in and flew upward with all its might. Neither side would yield, and right there in the moonlit flower field, a full-on tug-of-war began!
But suddenly…
Snap—
"Huh?"
Hearing a sound like a string snapping, Lumiere, still holding Rowlet, fell backward hard and landed in a sitting sprawl.
Rowlet ended up sitting on his chest, staring blankly at the two pink hearts clutched in its wings, blinking.
Enduring the pain, Lumiere hugged Rowlet and struggled back up. He noticed the hearts in Rowlet's grasp and recognized them as the decorations from the ends of Drifloon's strings.
"What the hell? You can actually rip these off?!"
Lumiere was stunned, but then he suddenly realized that the color of the hearts was pink.
But in his memory, Drifloon's hearts should be yellow, the same color as the cross on its face. Even shiny Drifloon were only light blue—
So how could there be pink ones…
Just then, the Drifloon that had been fighting so desperately now hovered in midair, staring at the two heartless strings swaying in the wind beneath it. Tears welled up in its eyes, and it finally couldn't hold back and began to cry.
Drifloon's crying sounded a bit like that of a little girl—quiet, yet piercing. Lumiere and Rowlet both turned to look,
Even Togepi on the ground opened the spikes it had tucked into its shell like a crown and glanced over.
"Why is it crying now?"
Lumiere felt completely at a loss. This was his first time dealing with something like this. Was it crying because the hearts had been torn off by him and Rowlet?
What was he supposed to do now? It felt like he was bullying it, and a wave of guilt immediately washed over him. Should he glue them back on? But he didn't have any holy water.
Facing this dilemma, Lumiere and Rowlet mirrored each other perfectly, both stroking their chins and sinking into deep thought…
But at that moment, an egg suddenly jumped up, snatched the two hearts from Rowlet's wings, then stepped on its head like a springboard and leaped into the air.
"Togepi~"
Lumiere snapped back to his senses and looked closely. It was Togepi. It tossed the hearts toward Drifloon,
Then a blue water droplet suddenly formed in front of it and shot out. Mid-flight, the droplet split in two and landed on the hearts, reattaching them to Drifloon's strings as if they had grown back naturally.
"That's Life Dew? It can even be used like holy water!"
Lumiere was astonished. In the games, Life Dew restored a quarter of the HP of the user and its allies, but in reality, it seemed to have far more uses. Today was truly eye-opening.
"As expected, games and reality can't be lumped together. A lot of knowledge probably needs to be relearned…"
Once its hearts were restored, Drifloon finally stopped crying and happily spun around in midair.
After completing the task, Togepi put its hands on its hips, looking as if it had proudly accomplished a great mission. But when it noticed Lumiere's gaze, it immediately shrank back into its shell and returned to its previous state.
"..."
"Are you really that scared of me?"
Lumiere felt a bit helpless. He was the victim here, wasn't he? Still, this Togepi was quite interesting—and wild Togepi were extremely rare. Maybe he could take it along to keep Rowlet company.
"Rowlet, do you want a little sister?"
"Rowlet?" Rowlet tilted its head, clearly not understanding what he meant…
Just as Lumiere was thinking about how to make his move, a figure holding a flashlight emerged from the forest not far away.
Upon seeing Togepi and Drifloon, the person seemed to relax and said with a gentle, magnetic voice and a smile, "I didn't expect you to run this far. You really made me look hard for you."
Lumiere turned toward the voice. He could understand the language perfectly—it was exactly the same as his own—but when he saw the person's appearance, his eyes widened and he froze in place.
The man was tall and slender, wearing a blue jacket with a large travel pack on his back. Over his front was a white apron decorated with a pattern of two interwoven yellow ginkgo leaves, likely the emblem of some merchant guild.
Beneath a blue-and-yellow cap, his golden hair was tied back like a girl's. Overlong bangs covered his left eye, obscuring part of his handsome face, yet his gentle smile gave off an inexplicable sense of reassurance…
"Cynthia? No… it's a male Cynthia!"