Meanwhile, Sailor helped out for a bit, but its gaze was constantly fixed on that strange Raccoon.
"Rattata."
It felt like there was a strange scent on it...
Very familiar, but Sailor couldn't remember.
Frowning in thought for a while, Sailor still couldn't recall what the scent resembled, so it just tilted its head and continued working while keeping an eye on the Raccoon.
Sailor's staring soon made the Raccoon uncomfortable. It scratched its head and glanced at this strange, clothed creature.
It definitely wasn't a raccoon; what exactly it was, the Raccoon didn't know.
But... it's probably a male, right?
The Raccoon thought, stole another glance at Sailor, immediately shuddered, and had to shift its attention back to assisting Leah.
"You're doing great! I told you, doing it yourself is actually the most fun," Leah patted the Raccoon—who seemed eager to burrow into the hollow and root out the wood chips—with a satisfied look.
"Squeak..."
That's not it at all!
The Raccoon thought, and under Sailor's gaze, fled as if escaping.
Time flashed forward to the next day.
After finishing the work in Santalune City, Ron let Indeedee out of its Poké Ball for the first time in a while.
Looking visibly unhappy, Indeedee turned its head away the moment it saw Ron.
"Indeedee, indeed!"
"I don't understand," Ron said, offering the Poké Puff in his hand to Indeedee. "Try it, how is it?"
"..."
"In." Indeedee turned its head away, sniffed with its nose, and after confirming it was a flavor it liked, turned its head back and took a bite: "Indeedee!" (I haven't decided to forgive you yet!)
"——Alright then." Ron paused, looking at Indeedee who was still throwing a tantrum, and roughly guessed the main reason for its sulking.
——
Ever since arriving at the farm, Indeedee had always considered itself the farm's steward.
To serve humans well, to take good care of the farm's Pokémon.
It had always been busy with various tasks on the farm, even working much harder than Ron most of the time.
Obviously, Magearna's arrival had given it a sense of crisis, causing it to urgently try to prove it was useful, desperately wanting to assert its presence.
And this sense of presence was absolutely not enough just by doing some cooking on the farm.
"How about we go to the amusement park in Santalune City today?" Ron asked.
"Indeedee?" Indeedee turned to look at Ron. "Indee?" (Didn't you say there was work to do?)
"Let's skip work for today," Ron continued. "Put the work aside for now, just play, don't do anything else."
There was no need to use its abilities to help Ron cheat, nor did it need to do any caretaking work.
Just learning to enjoy itself, learning to find its own value from somewhere else.
"Indee?"
Indeedee stared at Ron for a while, snorted, then walked ahead of Ron, striding into the amusement park.
Just looking... it wasn't as childish as the others.
Indeedee thought, its attention darting around the dazzling array of stalls.
Both extremely quiet and extremely noisy environments were relaxing for Indeedee.
One meant no other information entered its brain; the other meant there was so much information that it simply couldn't figure out who specifically wanted what, so it didn't have to worry about doing things to earn gratitude or other emotions.
"Indeedee——"
So what did it want?
Indeedee tilted its head and thought.
"Do you want ice cream?" Ron asked.
"In." (Yes.)
"Cotton candy?"
"Donuts?"
Indeedee started getting conflicted.
Seeing this, Ron simply bought them all and offered them to Indeedee.
"Indeedee!"
Meanwhile, in Pelican Town.
After a long time, everyone gathered at the Pokémon Center again today.
Because the girls from Pelican Town, plus those girls who weren't particularly familiar but had stayed in town for a few days and were practically Pelican Town residents by rounding up, were going to participate in the new Pokémon Contest, everyone was now sitting together in front of the TV.
Although the competition hadn't started yet, the room had already begun placing bets on today's champion.
"I think it'll be Haley!" Emily said, raising her hand high. "I specially made her dress for today! It'll definitely dazzle everyone!"
"I think it'll be Serena," Penny said.
The reason was that Penny really liked Serena. Although the two didn't have much interaction, because Serena had spent a lot of time at the library during her days in Pelican Town, they had some conversations.
——
Compared to Haley, Serena was exactly who Penny dreamed of becoming.
Poised and confident in her actions, gentle to others, beautiful, and knowledgeable.
Of course, she didn't mean Haley was bad, but if Penny had to choose someone she truly wanted to be, she still preferred Serena a little more.
"Hmph." Emily snorted, but she didn't dislike Serena either; she simply hoped Haley would win because Haley was her sister.
Right now, the folks at the Pokémon Center were still split into two factions.
One side supported Haley, and the other supported Serena.
"Hmm... isn't it possible for someone else to win?" Robin asked softly from the corner.
"..."
The room fell into a brief silence, and then everyone immediately redirected their attention back to the dispute over who would take the championship.
"Why not Serena?"
"Haley has been Pelican Town's Flower Dance Queen for several years in a row!"
"But if Lewis hadn't this year—"
"Ahem."
Lewis coughed from the side, and then walked out of the Pokémon Center.
The room went quiet again.
"Why did you have to bring that up?" Pam complained, nudging Sam, who had spoken out of turn.
"It just slipped out," Sam replied. "Is it something we can't talk about? Isn't it a fact?"
"That's true," Robin continued, "But Marnie has been really happy right up until today. And she really did deserve to be our Flower Dance Queen, right? No matter how you calculate it."
"Alright," Sam backed down. "Pretend I didn't say anything, let's just watch the contest."
Saying this, the group's eyes turned to the stage on the screen.
"Welcome to the Pokémon Contest battlefield! I'm your host, Marian!" The host excitedly introduced herself, then invited the first contestant onto the stage.
"Our first contestant is... Serena!"
The curtains parted, and Serena stepped onto the stage. She then held up a Poké Ball, glanced at the audience, and tossed it upward.
"Sylveon—Take the Stage!!!"
As soon as she spoke, Sylveon leaped out of the Poké Ball.
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