Pokémon from Galar

Mary sighed, "What's the use of you if you can't even stand on the battlefield? You can't even speak."

"Ugh—I really want to take off Onio's mask~ I heard there's a rare League card with Onio's mask off, but I've never seen a picture of it and I don't know if it's true or not."

"You actually believe this kind of news? Even if someone really filmed it, it's impossible for it to be made into a League card."

Unlike Yuri, Mary doesn't frequent various gym leader fan forums or online communities, but she occasionally hears strange rumors and inexplicable pairings.

For example, one that still leaves a deep impression on Mary is the pairing of Qibana and Nie Zi. There was even a particularly long and popular post debating whether it was Qibana x Nie Zi or Nie Zi x Qibana.

Mary had teased her brother about this for a long time, and then the post mysteriously disappeared. Mary suspected that her brother had asked the administrator to delete the post, but Nie Zi refused to admit it.

"Seriously—Marie, you really don't understand! This kind of news is only interesting if you believe it's true. It's not like it's some bad rumor. This kind of news is just for fun!"

"...Well, I really don't understand."

"Hmph~ I'll chat with Si-chan next time, I'm not talking to you!"

Hearing Mary's perfunctory reply, Yuri snorted and turned her head away, while Mary raised her eyebrows and looked at Su-chan with a surprised expression.

"Silkie, you like this?"

Although I know she's been studying human languages ​​lately, I wonder how she developed this hobby?

"Of course I brought her along. There are still many words that Sisi-chan doesn't understand very well lately, so I help her out sometimes."

"...Why didn't I know any of this?"

"Don't you dislike these things? Isn't it normal to find like-minded companions to discuss hobbies with?"

Yuri looked at Mary with an innocent expression, and her reason was so reasonable that it felt strangely reasonable.

"..."

Mary found herself speechless. She thought about it and it seemed to make sense, but something still felt off. But it wasn't a big deal, so she let it go.

However, given this situation, Marnie started thinking about equipping the Pokémon with some electronic devices. After all, they are Pokémon that follow their trainers, and Marnie can communicate without any problems, so everyone in the team has more or less come into contact with them.

It's just that the degree is a little different. For example, Ichigo prefers watching dramas, while Pazu prefers watching Pokémon competitions from different regions, and Hime-chan likes listening to music, and so on.

We used to be able to manage by sharing Mary's two phones, but if everyone develops some modern interests in the future, it might not be enough.

"Ah—but speaking of which, Mary-chan, you have your own fan forum now, and I'm a fan member."

"...???"

Mary looked at Yuri with a puzzled expression. What was all this about...?

"Don't believe me? I'll show you!"

Yuri seemed to have thought of something, and chuckled in a slightly lewd way. Then she held up her phone, opened a forum, and showed it to Mary.

"..."

Mary took the phone and looked at the screen. The first thing she saw was the pinned post.

'Marie's everyday photos revealed!! (Continuously updated)'

Mary had a strange, uneasy feeling. She clicked on the link casually, scrolled past the initial ramblings, and found a series of photos below.

All of them are photos of myself: eating, walking, waiting for the bus, interacting with Pokémon, and photos from when I was doing challenges...

Moreover, the photo was taken at a very close distance, so there was no need to guess who the criminal was.

"...Yuri, the person who posted this pinned post...could it be you?"

Mary was so ashamed of her name that she was even embarrassed to read it aloud to herself.

"Eh? Cough cough, don't worry, they're all unimportant photos. Look, I didn't post the photos of us staying at the hotel or the ones of us wearing swimsuits in Alola."

"..."

Wait, how come there are swimsuit photos too? When were they taken? I have no idea!

Mary stared at Yuri for a while before looking away with a complicated expression. She felt quite uneasy looking at the various requests for updates and strange comments mixed in with the photos, especially when she scrolled to the bottom, where the replies were quite lively because it seemed that the updates had been interrupted for quite a long time.

I quietly exited the pinned post and started reading it again.

The following discussions are much more normal, with ordinary conversations about Marnie and her Pokémon, as well as about Power Cubes. Although there are occasionally some strange "wife monsters" and "girlfriend monsters," they are harmless.

The most frequent discussions were about Kyon and Hime-chan, since one is one of the starter Pokémon of Alola and the other is an Ultra Beast, so almost no one knows them. Information about Popplio can still be found, but information about Nihilego is completely hearsay and is incredibly mysterious.

After looking at it for a while and finding nothing particularly interesting, he handed the phone back to Yuri, then grabbed her soft cheek with a displeased expression, ignoring her pleas, and started rubbing it.

Chapter 213 The Worrying Researcher and the Deformed Pokémon

Highway 6 is difficult to drive on.

The latter half consists mostly of rock walls and cliffs. Although there are paths, and the presence of Pokémon ensures safety, climbing the steps built into the rock walls with bare hands is still somewhat frightening.

Since they weren't in a rush, Mary and Yuri treated it as a free solo climbing experience, and to be honest, it was quite fun.

After climbing up to a platform, the two decided to rest for a while. It was actually quite close to Suchuan Town from here, so they decided to take a break before continuing their journey.

"Speaking of which... I think I last saw that strange researcher around here."

Yuri looked around, but did not see the short-haired researcher she had met once before.

"Maybe they went somewhere else?"

I didn't pay much attention to it. After all, he's someone who does fossil resurrection in the wild. Who knows, he might find this place unsuitable and go somewhere else.

"Are you two ladies also here to find that professor to revive your Pokémon? It's a pity you're a little too late; the professor left yesterday."

Just as Mary and Yuri were chatting, a middle-aged man passing by struck up a conversation with them.

"PhD?"

Mary was a little curious about the man's title, because according to Yuri's description, when they first met, he only introduced himself as a researcher.

"Yes, because the fossil was successfully brought back to life! Although it looks a bit strange, it's amazing. Many people from Suchuan Town came to ask the doctor to bring it back to life, but unexpectedly, the doctor disappeared early yesterday morning."

"Huh—can it really be resurrected?! The last time I saw that person, he said he had never succeeded in coming back even once."

Hearing the uncle's words, Yuri was also surprised. Mary thought for a moment, then suddenly looked at the uncle, who was somewhat smugly waiting for their next words, and said with amusement:

"Did you revive a Pokémon too, sir?"

"Yes! This is a Pokémon set I specially prepared for my son's graduation! If you want to see it, I can show it to you."

The uncle seemed to be a bit of a show-off. Marie and Yuri simply expressed their curiosity, and he easily pulled out a Great Ball and released the Pokémon he had obtained.

"Gah-"

A Pokémon with extremely disproportionate limbs appeared before the three of them, with thick green legs and a tail, and red spikes along its back. Then, this creature was cut in half at roughly the abdomen.

As if the Creator were playing a joke, a completely mismatched upper body of a yellow bird with a beak-like shape was pieced together on it.

The creature, which defied the laws of creation, left Mary speechless for a moment. She subconsciously swallowed and suddenly felt a wave of sorrow.

The Pokémon in front of me looks a bit weak, probably because it was recently born. It speaks a little unclearly, and its walking movements look somewhat funny and awkward, probably because of the lack of coordination in its lower body.

The only thing that calmed Mary down a little was that she sensed joy and carefree happiness from the chirping, which she couldn't quite understand, and that there was no pain or negative emotion.

This means that this splicing and revival was at least successful, and the Pokémon born did not suffer greatly.

Yuri boldly and curiously reached out and touched the soft, golden feathers on its upper body. This little guy was quite cute, making Yuri curious about what this yellow bird Pokémon really looked like. It was probably a very cute child.

And on the other side,

The older man, meanwhile, was talking incessantly to Mary about his wisdom and decisiveness:

"The day before yesterday, I had two fossils with me, intending to spend some money to buy a high-potential Dragon-type Pokémon for my son."

"However, a passerby saw my fossil and suddenly told me that there was a researcher here who had to provide free resurrection services for experiments because he didn't have the funds for research."

Mary blinked, then suddenly asked curiously:

"Passerby, what kind of passerby?"

"Huh? This... I don't remember very well, but it was two people dressed in a rather flamboyant way who told me, but that's not important! What's important is that I'm the first person to resurrect a fossil! Who knows, I might even make history!"

The man thought for a while, but didn't remember the two passersby, so he simply brushed it off with a single sentence.

After that, Mary didn't pay much attention to what the uncle said. What she cared about were the two passersby. It was a bit strange. Although it seemed like Mary was very suspicious, would a researcher who had never had any successful cases have completely unrelated passersby specifically trying to recruit people for her?

After chatting with the boastful uncle for a while, he reluctantly said goodbye to Mary and Yuri, who were willing to listen to his ramblings.

Yuri scratched her head and chuckled as she said:

"It's a little strange, but it's actually quite cute."

"Well... it looks like an Electric/Dragon type Pokémon, so maybe it's pretty strong."

Upon hearing Yuri's words, Mari simply responded with a nod. "Dracovish is already the most normal hybrid Pokémon. Once you see Dracovish, you'll know what truly bizarre is."

"I wonder where that researcher has gone. Shouldn't he be focusing on building his reputation at a time like this?"

"Who knows? Maybe they've gone back to their old research institute to get their name cleared."

To be honest, this matter doesn't have much to do with Mary. Now that the person can't be found and there are no obvious clues, Mary really doesn't have much energy to investigate this matter.

"That's true~ Could it be that another new Doctor is coming to Galar~"

"That's hard to say..."

With that bizarre appearance, if they dared to release it, who knows how many people would boycott and criticize them?

Thinking about this, Mary suddenly paused. If she could imagine such a thing, then others could certainly imagine it too. In the end, who would accept the researcher who created this fossil resurrection plan?

What path will a researcher who has mastered the method of resurrecting fossils, but is desperate and has no one to recognize his talent, ultimately take...?

This sudden, whimsical idea gave Mary a bad feeling.

She can only pray now that the Rockets' reach isn't long enough to extend their tentacles into Galar.

For Mary, Team Rocket is the terrorist organization she fears the most. Compared to Team Rocket, other terrorist organizations in other regions pale in comparison.

However, Galar's protective umbrella is still in place, and Leon is still standing at the top, so there's probably no need to worry too much about these issues.

Mary comforted herself in this way.

Chapter 214 A Chance Encounter and the Choice of the Dojo

Despite experiencing a mix of good and bad things along the way, Mary and Yuri finally officially entered the town of Suchuan.

Outside the town gate of Suchuan, there is a giant sculpture of three gophers that is very similar to the newly discovered ruins. It is said that in the past, Suchuan was able to establish itself in this mountainous area with the help of the three gophers.

That's why the residents at the time erected this statue.