Pokémon: Just won the championship, the newbie growth system is here!

"Chirp (My companion and I went underground, but we couldn't find our way back)."

"Chirp (The passageway has also become unfamiliar; many roads have disappeared, and many new roads have appeared)."

"Chirp (We can only gather food near the cave while digging our way home)."

In a corner of the celebration where no one noticed, on a slightly elevated bench.

Ye Luo wore a translation earring, or rather, a "Friendship Bell" that allowed her to hear the voices of Pokémon, as Diancie chirped and recounted its ordeal.

However, there is clearly a blind spot in the middle.

"I understand the situation, but why are you in Cerulean City, Diancie?"

Speaking of this, Diancie suddenly became embarrassed and rubbed her hands together. Her actions were quite obvious and basically explained the reason.

"You snuck out, didn't you?"

"Chirp (nods...)"

While her companions were still digging a tunnel to find their way home, Diancie, feeling bored, decided to go out and see the world.

From Mt. Tsukimi, one can see the brightly lit night view of Cerulean City, and the twinkling lights make it very curious.

Considering that the other two little diamonds are rather cautious and stubborn, they certainly wouldn't listen to this suggestion if this Diancie wanted to go out and see the world.

It's easy to guess that it must have sneaked out of Tsukimi Cave and come to Cerulean City.

Ye Luo put away the Friendship Bell. He had learned enough about what he needed to know, and there was no need to keep using useful tools.

Let's leave some room for imagination with Pokémon; since they can't speak, let's rely on the trainer's intuition to guess their identity.

"But you managed to avoid being caught by the trainers along the way."

Ye Luo already knew about Diancie's abilities from the Team Rocket researchers' data. Her actual strength was similar to that of Scramble, and probably on par with Geodude from Mt. Tsukimi.

Given its strength and the fact that it looks like an extremely rare Pokémon, it was somehow not captured by any trainer along the way.

Especially now, when the number of new trainers embarking on their journeys is at its peak, everyone wants a rare and powerful Pokémon to be their companion.

Tianxi covered her mouth and chuckled, then decided to show off her skills in front of Ye Luo.

Its hand stretches forward, creating a roughly cube-shaped wall of light in the air that can block anything in front of it.

Ye Luo noticed that Diancie's body was no longer visible; all he could see was the ground and the light of the street in the distance.

"Chirp (See?)"

Diancie popped her head out from the side, revealing her position with a pink diamond, but her body seemed to disappear behind the [light wall].

Ye Luo was quite surprised.

"You're quite clever to refract light and create a special light wall to hide yourself."

"Chirp (Of course)."

Tianxi responded with a smile.

What surprised Ye Luo wasn't the move itself; Light Screen is actually a very common move that most Pokémon use.

The effect is to create a magical mental wall that reflects the energy passing through it, thereby halving the power of special attack moves.

However, this is just the basic use of the Light Screen move. If we delve into its principle, the reason why Light Screen weakens special attack moves is because of "refracting" energy, which of course can also refract light.

Light refracts and changes from different angles, reflecting the scenery as if it were invisible, and can also simulate extremely realistic illusions.

The prerequisite is highly skilled mental control, the ability to consciously control the refraction of light at a specified angle, which is impossible for humans. Some scientists are using this as a basis to research invisibility devices, but it is currently still at the theoretical level.

However, Pokémon often don't care about theory; they rely more on instinct.

Diancie's ability to do this is beyond the level of Little Diamond; perhaps the mutation in Team Rocket's experiment awakened some different abilities in her.

Meloeta, who was eating fried noodles, sensed Ye Luo's thoughts and quietly disappeared.

The next second, Ye Luo felt something land on her lap, and Meloetta appeared, proudly puffing out her chest.

[Easy peasy, Meloetta is amazing, isn't it?]

"Yes, that's impressive."

For some legendary Pokémon, using psychic powers to refract light is a minor trick, and creating illusions is as natural as drinking water.

Ye Luo patted Meloetta's head and praised her, and she happily continued eating her fried noodles.

Unaware that not far away, Diancie watched Ye Luo and Meloetta interact, her ruby-like eyes sparkling with longing.

It must be so fun to play with humans like this, and to eat and drink together.

Pokémon's three main needs are eating, sleeping, and playing.

In the wild, if these three things can be met at the same time, it is the greatest happiness for a Pokémon.

The fact that the human in front of her possessed both made Diancie extremely envious.

As long as Ye Luo speaks, it's willing to travel with her; Tianxi has already put the idea of ​​going home out of her mind.

Ye Luo saw that Diancie's eyes were shining as she watched Meloetta eat fried noodles, and guessed that it was hungry, so she picked up a plate of tree fruit dumplings that she hadn't touched yet.

"Want some?"

"Chirp (nods)."

Diancie skipped over and sat on the bench. Ye Luo handed her the fruit balls and bamboo skewers.

"I'm already very full, so I'll leave this to Diancie to digest."

"Chirp."

The remaining snacks were all left to be taken care of by Honey Orochi; the family's foodie, Duo Yelu, never worried about food waste.

"Carp-shaped pancakes, honey-gathered serpent, here you go."

"roar."

The pancakes, shaped like the Magikarp, are filled with red bean paste. Essentially a dessert, Ye Luo found them too sweet after just one bite, perhaps because he was already full. He felt the stall owner had put too much sugar in them.

It's fine to feed it to the Honeycomb Serpent; it likes sweets, and this level of sweetness is just right for it.

[I want some too!]

Meloeta was still eating fried noodles when she asked Ye Luo to give her a bite of carp-shaped pancake.

In short, Meloeta never refuses any kind of delicious food; her small stomach can hold far more food than her body size allows.

Ye Luo bought too much food, so taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention while it was in a high place, she called out all her Pokémon to digest the food.

Gardevoir appeared and saw Diancie eating next to Leaffall.

[This is?]

"I saw it at Mount Tsukimi."

Gardevoir didn't pay much attention to her, but used its telekinesis to move Diancie to the side, and then sat in the middle, picking up a koi-yaki and starting to eat.

"Hey, here's some grilled squid for you."

"La~".

The sea lion, of course, loves seafood, and it happily ate the grilled squid with a sip in its mouth.

Arcanine and Honeycomb Orochi were on the left and right sides, and Leaf took out extra roasted berries and gave them to Arcanine.

As for Saifuhao, it was already drawn by the festive atmosphere and rushed into the crowd to throw gold coins.

A commotion immediately broke out below.

"Whose is that golden Pokémon?!"

"Huh? What did they give me, gold coins?!"

"Is it a festival event?!"

"Hurry up and follow it, maybe we can find another one."

"Chirp chirp~ (Let's liven things up)."

The commotion during the celebration did not last long, as people's attention was diverted by fireworks in the night sky.

Ye Luo and his Pokémon ate New Year's snacks while looking up at the fireworks that lit up the sky.

Diancie watched all this with anticipation, feeling that this was the beginning of an encounter, and perhaps a surprise would happen soon.

It guessed the surprise part correctly; under the fireworks, two little diamonds awkwardly crawled out of the grass, their faces filled with anger.

They trekked through mountains and rivers, following the fairy scent of their companions all the way to Cerulean City. Along the way, they even fought two battles with trainers who wanted to capture them, before finally finding their lost companions.

When Little Diamond found it, it was astonishing to see Diancie sitting next to her trainer, eating delicious food and watching fireworks, just like nothing had happened.

The two small diamonds immediately became furious.

"Chirp~ (You're here!)"

Diancie shuddered at the sound of her companion's cry and looked down at Little Diamond, whose eyes seemed to be blazing with fire.

Ye Luo also noticed them; they were small diamond fragments she had seen at Mount Tsukimi, which she guessed were from Diancie who had gotten lost and had come looking for her.

However, Diancie is currently preoccupied with being lectured by two little diamonds, rather than watching the New Year's fireworks.

"Chirp~ (Do you know how hard we've been looking for you?)!"

"Chirp~ (You disappeared in an instant, I thought you'd been kidnapped again)."

"Chirp... (I'm planning to travel with humans)."

"Chirp~!"

The two tiny diamonds were stunned for a second, but their surprise was quickly replaced by a lecture.

"Chirp~ (Why travel? Let's go home first!)"

"Chirp~ (The hole is almost finished digging!)"

"Chirp~ (I don't want to)."

But regardless of whether it wanted to or not, the two tiny diamonds used their mental power to forcibly lift Diancie up.

"Oh? This little diamond can even use psychic powers, it's got some skills."

Little Diamond used its mental power to forcibly drag Diancie away. Although Diancie still tried to struggle, it was no match for Little Diamond's strength.

The last remaining small diamond nodded to Ye Luo before leaving.

"Chirp~ (I'm sorry to have troubled you, human)."

Ye Luo thought for a moment, realizing that she was probably expressing her gratitude.

"Take these leftover roasted tree berries with you; you can eat them on the way."

"Chirp~ (Thank you)."

The closed box of roasted tree fruit was placed on the small drill bit, which held it in place with its mental power. It hopped and skipped to meet up with its companions and pushed Diancie away.