Pokémon from Galar

"Champion? Dan-Di?"

"Uh-huh!"

"I see. No wonder you were able to get the child."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"No, it's nothing. I just wanted to ask if you know where this place is? How dare you barge in with a Pokémon you just got?"

"Hehehehe~"

"...I wasn't praising you. If you hadn't run into me today, would you have been starving?"

"Uh, I'm so sorry! I was too smug!"

Yuri wasn't truly clueless; it's just that she was young, had just become a trainer, and had gained the approval of Champion Leon, so she thought she was invincible. In a moment of impulsiveness, she plunged into the Wild Area.

Moreover, Yuri's previous experience of being chased by wild Pokémon all the way just because she wanted to pick a few berries had indeed made her more aware of things.

"It's good that you're conscious. Tell me, where are you planning to go, or should I take you back to the gathering area?"

"Hey, but I just came from there..."

Yuri shook her head vigorously, like a rattle-drum.

"The railway from there to Machine City is blocked by Woolstaff and can't run, so I had no choice but to cross the wilderness... I saw the other passengers getting on... I thought..."

"Ugh……"

Mary rubbed her temples, feeling a bit of a headache. Hadn't this child done any research beforehand? Even browsing forums would have been fine.

Seeing Yuri looking as pitiful as a tearful lizard, Mari couldn't bring herself to be too harsh, so she sighed and began to explain.

"That's because you took the wrong path. The Wild Area does belong to Pokémon, but there are also some paths that aren't really roads but are meant for humans to use. It's a tacit understanding between Pokémon and humans."

"As long as an ordinary person prepares enough food, there shouldn't be any problem passing through that road. You can even pick a few fruit trees along the road to fill your stomach without any Pokémon attacking you."

"But you rushed all the way to the shore of Lake Axew... That's like trespassing into Pokémon territory, which is definitely dangerous."

"Oh, I see! Mary-chan is amazing, she knows so much!"

"...This kind of knowledge can be found in many places, didn't you do any research before you came out?"

"Hehe~"

"..."

Just as Mary was beginning to rethink her perception of this somewhat silly girl, a swarm of bees suddenly flew over from the side, attracting her attention.

"Let's eat first, we can talk about everything later."

"Oh! Thank you!"

Upon hearing that it was time to eat, Yuri immediately became interested, not even noticing the few bees that flew above her head.

Mary stood up, smiling as she looked at the three bees buzzing in front of her. She gently poked the lead bee with her finger, then reached out and took the hard plastic bottle filled with sweetness.

Thank you all this time too.

"Squeak squeak squeak~ (You're welcome. On the contrary, we should thank Lady Mary for the cubes. Now the new three bees are all growing very healthily!)"

"Really? That's good. Would you like to have lunch together?"

After looking around, glancing at the four bottles of the same size on the table, and then at the twenty or so bees around her, Mary smiled and invited them over.

"Squeak squeak squeak~ (Great! I really went through a lot to get this transport job, of course I'll take it!)"

The cacophony of three bees brought a happy smile to Mary's face. She turned and waved to Yuri, who was still in a daze beside her.

"Yuri, come over here quickly, dinner's ready!"

"oh oh!"

Although I'm very curious about what Mary-chan did just now, my belly is the most important thing! Anyway, I'll eat first!

Mary usually cooks a lot of food because she knows the bees will come to freeload. Don't let their small size fool you; when there are about twenty of them together, they can eat quite a lot.

Mary added some sweetness and stirred it for a while before officially announcing that dinner was served.

First, she served Yuri a bowl, then she started preparing for the Pokémon. She added crushed Bug-type Energy Cubes to the curry for the three beetles, and for Iori, she added Energy Cubes that could boost Steel-type energy and physical attributes.

I glanced at the tearful lizard clinging to my shoulder, sharing its food with its owner. After thinking for a moment, I found out a long-stored energy cube that could enhance water-type energy, crushed it, and mixed it into a small portion of curry.

"Huh? Is this for the teardrop lizard?"

Yuri held the small portion of curry and looked up at Mary with some confusion.

"Yes, I added a little bit of Energy Cubes, which are good for Water-type Pokémon. This kid needs extra nutrition and training right now. You'd better make a plan and buy some more suitable Energy Cubes for it."

Seeing the child's silly appearance, Mary couldn't help but say a few more words.

"Oh, okay! Thank you, I understand!"

"Yay (Thank you, thank you...you're a good person too.)"

After trying a bite, the teardrop lizard could still feel the water-based energy contained within, so it timidly raised its head and said thank you in a childish voice.

"You're welcome, please take your time eating."

After entertaining the group of Pokémon and people, Marie picked up her own lunch, sat down next to Yuri, and began to eat.

After lunch, Mary said goodbye to the three bees while clearing away the dishes, then looked at I-chan beside her and said with a smile:

"Please, Ichi-chan~ I'm so focused."

"Ee~ (I understand.)"

Ichigo knew that this was to train her control over mental power, since her master had specially obtained a machine to teach her mental techniques.

At first, I just thought my master was simply trying to be lazy, but gradually, after he was able to perfectly integrate his mental power into his daily life, his proficiency in mental power increased by leaps and bounds.

After personally experiencing how strong she became, Ichijo happily took over many of Mary's housework.

As for whether Mary really wanted to slack off... that remains to be seen.

Chapter 3: I-chan's Strength

Ichigo's growth was very rapid, or rather, her speed of becoming stronger was almost exaggerated. Because of this, Marie even took Ichigo to the Pokémon Center to see Nurse Joy many times.

However, every diagnosis showed that the patient was perfectly healthy and developing exceptionally well.

If we were to describe how exaggerated Ichigo's growth in strength is, we could only say that at just over a year old, Ichigo is already able to fight on equal terms with the main Pokémon of Marie's brother, Nie Zi, the current Dark-type Gym Leader.

This speed of improvement is several times that of other Pokémon. The Pokémon that Nie Zi uses to participate in the annual championship challenge has been trained with him for several years or even longer to reach its current level.

However, Marie's Umbreon managed to close that time gap in just one year. Although it lost most of the battles, it was still able to put up evenly matched fights.

Marie stared at the Umbreon standing by the lake, its tail wagging and its head bowed, washing dishes with its psychic powers. Further away on the lake, Sobble floated about.

"Marie, what are you thinking about?"

"……Sauce?"

Mary turned her head and looked at Yuri, who was standing beside her with her hands behind her back, and met her big smile.

"Hehe~"

"...Nothing, I was just spacing out."

Mary shook her head and didn't say much. As for Ichigo's unusual growth rate, since Ichigo was the only Pokémon at the moment, she couldn't determine whether it was due to Ichigo's exceptional talent or her own unknown special ability.

Just then, Yi-chan finished cleaning all the tableware and skillfully helped pack it into the tableware box.

Thank you~

"Hey hey..."

Reaching out to ruffle Umbreon's hair, Marie pulled out her Rotom phone, stood up, and said with a smile:

"So today's training will begin with Iron Tail control and focus exercises~"

"Ee! (I know!)"

"Oh my! Is Marie going to start training her Pokémon?!"

Yuri looked very curious and moved closer, as if she wanted to observe.

"Well, it's fine if you want to see it."

Marnie isn't particularly shy about this kind of thing. Although some trainers keep their unique training methods secret, Marnie originally found the training method at the Pokémon Research Institute and then modified and adjusted it herself, so she doesn't care much.

What Ichigo lacks most right now is practice and accumulation of moves. Unlike the games of her previous life, Pokémon in the real world cannot be improved solely through battles.

The way to become stronger relies on the accumulation of tedious training over time; battles are merely a tool for Pokémon to learn how to use their own power.

However, many new trainers develop a misunderstanding of Pokémon training plans due to online battles, leading to their Pokémon constantly battling, healing, battling, and healing.

Although this gentle world allows Pokémon to fully recover after being exhausted and falling in battle, they can be perfectly healed as long as they receive effective treatment, unless they continue to launch even more intense attacks.

However, excessive battles and fighting can have varying degrees of psychological impact on young Pokémon.

Marnie would never do such a fatally flawed training method for Pokémon.

From a year ago until now, Ichigo has become quite proficient in using some necessary alteration moves, but her attack methods are relatively limited.

Aside from Dark Pulse, Deception, and Quick Attack, only Psychic is worth mentioning. Iron Tail and Toxic, which I recently learned using TM, are not particularly powerful or fast to generate.

I led Ichigo to a sparsely wooded open area not far away, where we could see what looked like a tent.

However, although it is called training, we have already passed the stage of understanding the techniques. What we need to do now is to become more proficient in Steel-type Energy and how to use Iron Tail smoothly in conjunction with Quick Attack.

This is why blocks that can enhance steel-type energy are sometimes mixed into food.

Therefore, the training content was very boring. Ichigo had to use Iron Tail over and over again, then cancel it, or use Quick Attack to hit the random objects that Mary threw out.

Holding Rotom's phone, he turned on the camera and pointed it at Luna.

"Rotom, I-chan, are you ready?"

"Ee! (Of course!)"

Rotom made no sound on the phone, but a pop-up window appeared, and it flew up on its own, starting to load the timing and recording functions.

Umbreon tilted its head back and cried out, then began to gather Steel-type energy on its tail. The silvery-white energy covered Umbreon's large tail, and the stable energy gathering made the light restrained and steady.

The moment it took shape, the Rotom phone floated up and displayed the time that had just been recorded.

"One and a half seconds, which is about the same as yesterday's record. We need to try to stabilize the condensation speed within one second in this short period of time!"