Not Being a Trainer This Time

There are also Skiddo and Gogoat over by Casseroya Lake, but Tropius has never felt this kind of aura from them.

Wow, so awesome!

Naoki told Gogoat and Arboliva to take good care of this new companion, then turned around, planning to head back to the ranch.

Because it was getting dark, he needed to go prepare dinner for the Pokemon.

But just before he left, Giratina, who had been napping on the neighboring Sky Island, called out to him in a gloomy tone.

Giratina: ”You’re getting more and more casual.”

How big your guts are!

This is its turf—does he think he can come and go as he pleases?! Giratina thought irritably.

”...”

Naoki then remembered there was still a petty dragon living in the Reversed World.

He said, ”Don’t you get lonely living here all by yourself as a dragon? You should make more friends.”

If it stayed this grumpy, how was he supposed to hand the Rotom Phone over to Giratina later? The Rotom inside that phone would definitely get scared half to death.

Giratina refused to admit that it was actually a little lonely, so it chose to hide its true feelings behind a violent roar:

”Who’s lonely?! I’ve been living like this for tens of thousands of years! I’m not lonely at all!”

Giratina snorted coldly, its voice icy: ”Hmph, human, you’re getting more and more presumptuous!”

Even as it said that, Giratina found Naoki more and more pleasing to the eye, and there was also a kind of faintly familiar, friendly feeling coming from him.

Naoki couldn’t quite figure out Giratina’s temperament. To soothe its bad mood, he thought for a moment, then floated up onto that Flower Sky Island.

Then, under Giratina’s glare, Naoki reached his hand out toward it.

Dragon Power, activate!

The next second, Giratina’s eyes widened.

”You brazen human! What did you do?!”

It felt a warm energy surge into its body...

In that moment, Giratina felt its body grow warm and cozy, a sensation it had never experienced before welling up inside.

Naoki chose to pet it with the grain: ”I’m thanking you. This is an ability I just awakened; it works really well on Dragon Type Pokemon. You’re a Dragon Type Pokemon too.”

As he spoke, Naoki gave Giratina a full, proper massage.

When it was over, Giratina looked as if it were drunk.

”Go on then. Since you’re being so sensible, I’ll let today’s matter slide.”

So, Dragon Power works on Legendary Pokemon too! Naoki thought.

Though for now, the effect seemed pretty minimal.

But Naoki had no intention of using Dragon Power to power Giratina up. For a powerhouse like Giratina, his current Dragon Power couldn’t do anything on that level; it’d be like a drop in the bucket.

Being able to use Dragon Power just to raise Giratina’s affection was already quite good.

After thinking it over briefly, Naoki said goodbye to Giratina.

*

In League Calendar year 199, the snow came even earlier than last year.

Early the next morning, snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

Thankfully, Naoki had already gotten the Pokemon on the ranch prepared in advance.

Combee and Butterfree moved into the Glass Greenhouse, while Gogoat and Arboliva and the others went under the World Tree.

The Miltank returned to the warm Pokemon House, and the Garganacl holed up in the Underground Cave.

The Wooloo were settled by Naoki into the Miltank’s Pokemon House, and Snorlax was moved by Naoki into the living room.

With no work to do on a snowy day, Naoki, for once, stayed home with the Pokemon.

Outside, the snow was coming down hard.

The Slugma in the room continuously sent warm air outwards, while Pawmot hovered by the vent, passing Berries in to the Slugma inside.

Several Eevee chased and wrestled with each other around the room. Alcremie and a few other Eevee were sitting on Snorlax’s belly, chattering away, while two Eevee who had never seen snow before had their little faces pressed to the window, watching the snow outside.

Cyclizar and Koraidon were lying in front of the fireplace, the Indeedee Sibling keeping watch nearby. Calyrex sat on the sofa watching TV, and Flutter Mane drifted all around the rooms on the second floor.

Ogerpon and Gholdengo were upstairs sharing the mask.

Farfetch’d hugged its leek and rested to the side. Dragonite had gone back into its Poke Ball to snore away, and after finishing their work, the Dragonite laborers had each been given a big bag of Poffins by Naoki and sent back to Dragonite Island to spend the winter.

Naoki lay on the sofa, fiddling with the Rotom Phone, trying to communicate with the Rotom inside.

Amidst the swirling snowfall, the figure of a Zapdos cut across the sky.

On its back were two small Pokemon, both petite in size.

They were the traveling Teddiursa and Mew.

Seeing the ranch draw closer and closer, the two Pokemon’s faces were filled with anticipation.