Elf: Rewriting the script, starting with Black Stocking Hanako

"Jiang Chuan, you should have noticed by now that my family is in the pharmaceutical business."

Qingmei continued to explain, pointing to the rows of herbs drying in the yard and then to the direction of the main room.

"My maternal grandmother, my mother, and I—our family has been doing this for generations. I'm the fourth generation of pharmacists in Songzao Town."

She paused here, her fingers unconsciously tightening around the hem of her clothes.

"But we have a family rule."

"To officially graduate as a pharmacist, one must independently create a unique, personalized medicine. This medicine is called 'Spore Amplifier,' and it's specifically for Pokémon. It can significantly enhance a Pokémon's physical attributes and skill power in a short period of time."

Hanako's eyes lit up when she heard this.

"Spore amplifier? That sounds amazing."

Kiyomi nodded, but her expression was somewhat troubled.

"Yes, I've memorized the prescription long ago, and I can find all the other ingredients. But I just can't get the most crucial ingredient, the guiding herb."

She sighed and continued.

"That medicinal ingredient requires a special type of spore. Only Paraster can produce this type of spore."

"And it's not your average Paraster."

Kiyomi's tone became serious.

"It must be cultivated by a pharmacist from the time of Paras, fed with specially made herbal feed little by little, until it evolves into Parasect. Only then will mushrooms with special medicinal properties grow on its back. Only the spores produced by those mushrooms can be used as a medicinal ingredient."

Xiaoxia listened for a long time, then tilted her head.

"Then why don't you just train one?"

Kiyomi gave a wry smile.

"I've already trained him."

She pointed to the hillside outside the yard.

"I have a Paras, whom I've raised from a kitten. I feed him herbal food that I personally mix and prepare, without ever slacking off."

"but……"

As Qingmei finished speaking, her voice lowered.

"My Paras, it's too cowardly."

"When it encounters a slightly larger wild Pokémon, it will curl up into a ball and play dead. Sometimes, even if I approach it a little too quickly, it will be so frightened that it will run around in all directions."

Qingmei became increasingly helpless as she spoke, and then shrugged.

"It can't train, let alone fight. It has no courage to fight at all, and its experience gain is slower than a snail's pace. At this rate, I don't know when it will evolve, let alone produce spores."

She looked up at Jiang Chuan, her eyes full of anticipation.

"According to the family rules, if I fail to complete the apprenticeship assessment this year, I will have to wait another three years."

"so……"

Qingmei took a deep breath and looked at Jiang Chuan solemnly.

"Jiang Chuan, you can catch a Mini Dragon, I think you must be a very skilled breeder."

"Can you help me?"

"Help me train my Paras, at least make it bolder, dare to fight, and accumulate experience points to evolve."

Jiang Chuan did not reply immediately after hearing Qingmei's words.

He lowered his head and thought for a moment.

Qingmei just gave Mini Dragon emergency treatment without saying a word and even applied herbal medicine. Now his grandmother is preparing medicine for Mini Dragon in the main room, so he has to accept this favor.

Moreover... the mission requirements are also helpful to Kiyomi, which is perfect.

Jiang Chuan looked up at Qingmei's bright eyes and nodded.

"Can."

"I'll train Paras for you."

Kiyomi was taken aback.

Then a big smile bloomed on her delicate face, and her eyes curved into crescent moons.

"Really? That's great!"

She was so happy she almost jumped for joy, and clasped her hands together, thanking Jiang Chuan several times.

At this moment, Xiaoxia, who had been standing to the side, came up.

She shoved the half-eaten bunch of chilled mushrooms into Hanako's hand, patted the crumbs off her hands, then crossed her arms and looked at Kiyomi with a smug expression.

"Miss Kiyomi, you've come to the right person."

Xiaoxia's tone carried a hint of pride, and her chin was slightly raised.

"Jiang Chuan is really skilled at training Pokémon."

She held up one finger and waved it in front of Kiyomi.

"He's already got six badges!"

"Six!"

Xiaoxia deliberately emphasized this number, her expression even more smug than if she were a gym leader herself.

"Eight badges are needed to qualify for the Indigo League, and he's only two short. He's fought his way through all the gym battles with his Pokémon, and sometimes when I watch him, I'm amazed at how seriously he takes battles."

Hanako listened from the side and chuckled softly.

"Xiaoxia, you usually bicker with Jiang Chuan all the time, why are you praising him now?"

Xia blushed slightly after Hanako said that, but she immediately straightened her neck.

"I was just telling the truth!"

She turned to look at Jiang Chuan, her eyes carrying a meaning that only the two of them could understand.

"This guy... he's really good at some things, I don't deny it."

When Xiaoxia said the second half of her sentence, her voice became noticeably softer, and her tone changed slightly, as if she were talking about something only she knew.

The recent reduction in bickering was a change that occurred one night a while ago.

Jiang Chuan trained all day that day, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. When he returned to the camp, he looked very tired.

Xiaoxia didn't know what got into her at the time, but seeing his expression, she suddenly wanted to tease him.

While Hanako was preparing dinner, she sidled up to Jiang Chuan and poked his sweaty arm with her finger.

"Hey, Jiang Chuan, is the training really that intense today?"

Her tone was clearly teasing, and a mischievous smile played at the corners of her lips.

"Don't turn into a nobody in front of me tonight."

Jiang Chuan didn't react much at the time.

He simply looked up at Xiaoxia, smiled at her, and then continued to organize his backpack.

That smile looked quite gentle, but when Xiaoxia thinks back on it now, she always feels that there was something hidden in that smile.

As a result, she suffered that very night.

Since then, Xiaoxia has temporarily become Jiang Chuan's praise machine.

She quickly banished those images from her mind and regained her spirited demeanor.

"In short, Ms. Kiyomi, you should leave your Paras to Jiang Chuan."

Xiaoxia patted Qingmei on the shoulder, her tone very confident.

"I guarantee that it won't be long before your Paras is different."

Upon hearing Xiaoxia's words, Qingmei's smile widened even more.

"Then I'll take you to find it!"

She turned and walked out of the courtyard, her steps light and quick, her skirt swaying gently with her movements.

"My Paras usually roams on a grassy area on that hillside; it doesn't dare to wander too far. It should still be there at this time."

Jiang Chuan and his two companions followed Qingmei up a narrow mountain path.

The roadside was covered with low shrubs, and occasionally you could see a few wild green caterpillars crawling on the leaves, and a few bobbleheads jumping between the branches.

After walking for about five minutes, the view suddenly opened up ahead.

It was a fairly large lawn on the hillside. The grass wasn't very tall, but it was lush and green, and soft to the touch. Several crooked old trees grew along the edge of the lawn, casting their shade and providing a cool respite for the grass.

But the lawn was empty.

Not a single Pokémon can be seen.

Qingmei stood at the edge of the lawn, looked around, and then raised her voice and shouted.

"Paras..."

"Paras, come out, it's me, Kiyomi..."

Her voice carried across the hillside, but there was still no sound on the grass.

Kiyomi called out twice more.

Just then, a rustling sound came from a clump of low bushes at the edge of the lawn.

A small head peeked out from a gap in the bushes.

That was a Paras.

It is slightly larger than a regular Paras, and the mushrooms on its back are a darker color, clearly indicating that it has been raised on a special feed for a long time.

But its round eyes were filled with vigilance and tension.

It only poked its head out, its body still completely hidden in the bushes. And it wasn't looking at Kiyomi, but at the three strangers standing behind Kiyomi: Jiangchuan, Xiaoxia, and Hanako.

Upon seeing strangers, Paras pulled his head back halfway.

Seeing this, Qingmei turned to Jiang Chuan and gave him a wry smile.

"See, that's it."

She pointed to the bushes where Paras was hiding, her tone full of helplessness.

"It hides far away whenever it sees a stranger. I don't know how many times I've taken it out to meet people, but it just can't get rid of this habit."

Hanako took two steps forward, squatted down, gave Paras a gentle smile from afar, and waved.

As soon as Paras saw Hanako approaching, he completely shrank back into the bushes, leaving only a small tip of the mushroom sticking out.

Hanako stood up somewhat awkwardly and patted the grass clippings off her knees.

"Indeed... you're quite timid."

Xia, who was watching from the side, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"This little guy is more timid than any other Radamanthys I've ever seen."

Qingmei sighed and was about to call Paras out again when Jiang Chuan raised his hand to stop her.

"I'll give it a try."

Kiyomi was taken aback.

"But sometimes it even runs away when I get close—"

Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Chuan had already walked out.

His pace was neither fast nor slow, and his expression was calm, showing no sign of tension or urgency.

Kiyomi opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she swallowed it back.

As she watched Jiang Chuan's retreating figure, a thought that she herself found absurd popped into her mind.

She was Paras's trainer and had raised it for several years before she could barely communicate with it smoothly.

Even so, Paras sometimes still avoids her.

This was the first time Jiang Chuan had met Paras.

He had never even formally met Paras, so how could he possibly communicate with it?

As Qingmei was thinking, Jiangchuan had already walked to a place about five steps away from the bushes.

He stopped in his tracks.

Then, he squatted down.

Jiang Chuan closed his eyes.

The moment he closed his eyes, an invisible force slowly spread out from him.

The power of waveguides.

His aura manipulation ability has now broken through to the intermediate level. He can now accurately transmit his emotional fluctuations to the perception range of every living being around him.

It was a very gentle force.

Kiyomi stood behind, unable to sense the specific form of the Aura, but she could see a scene that surprised her.

Paras, who was in the bushes, did not run away.

Instead of running away, its little head slowly peeked out from the bushes.

Paras tilted his head, his two round eyes looking at Jiang Chuan who was squatting not far away.

The wariness in its eyes was still there, but much less.

More than anything, it's a feeling of confusion.

This human...

It doesn't recognize it.

But the feeling it exuded made Paras feel very comfortable.

It's like a lawn basking in the afternoon sun, warm and cozy, and doesn't make you feel scared.

Jiang Chuan slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze met Paras's in mid-air.

Instead of standing up and walking over immediately, he remained squatting in place, raising one hand, palm up, and placing it on his knee.

The meaning of that action is very simple.

I won't force you.

If you want to come over, then come over.

It's okay if you don't want to come.

Paras stared at Jiang Chuan's palm for a long time.

Then, it began to move slowly forward.

Although it moved slowly, and paused after every two steps, it was indeed moving towards Jiangchuan.

Standing behind, Kiyomi's mouth was agape in an "O" shape.

She stared at the scene before her, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"This...how is this possible?"

Qingmei's voice cracked.

She instinctively pinched her arm, and the pain made her gasp, confirming that she wasn't dreaming.

"My Paras... When I first met it, it took me a full three days to get it to stop hiding from me! Three days!"

Kiyomi turned to look at Kasumi and Hanako, her face filled with disbelief.

"Jiang Chuan has only been here a few minutes? He hasn't even said a word yet!"

Xiaoxia and Huazi exchanged a glance, both with calm expressions.

Hanako smiled, her tone calm.

"You'll get used to it."

Xiaoxia waved her hand dismissively, as if she were used to it.

"What's so strange about that? Along the way, we often encounter wild Pokémon that ignore everyone else but keep coming up to Jiang Chuan. I even suspect that he's smeared with something that Pokémon like, something we can't smell."

Hanako nodded.

After hearing these words, Qingmei turned to look at Jiang Chuan.

Her gaze fell on Jiang Chuan's retreating figure, and a feeling she couldn't quite describe welled up inside her.

Grandma just said that this person can tame a Mini Dragon, so he must be extraordinary.

She just felt that her grandmother was indirectly saying that this person was very capable.

But now she has witnessed this scene with her own eyes.

Her own Paras, the Paras that she had raised for several years but would hide from, actually came out on its own in front of a human she was meeting for the first time.

This is not a matter of ability.

This is something deeper.

As Qingmei watched Jiang Chuan's retreating figure, her heart skipped a beat.

Jiang Chuan then took a small paper packet out of his pocket.

That's Hanako's latest feed formula.

The ingredients are carefully selected and the proportions are precise. Even top gourmets like Hakron, who are known for their discerning palates, have given it their praise.

Hanako's smile deepened when she saw Jiangchuan take this out.

It was something she made herself, which Jiang Chuan always carried with him and even used on this occasion.

Although it was just a bag of feed, she felt inexplicably sweet inside.

Paras's nose twitched.

The fragrance entered its nostrils, and its eyes brightened considerably.

It glanced at the delicious food in Jiang Chuan's hand, then at Jiang Chuan's face.

Jiang Chuan placed the block on the grass and then withdrew his hand.

Paras hesitated for a few seconds.

Then, finally unable to resist the allure of the fragrance, it trotted over...