Chapter 124: Legendary ingredient
Naoki's mind flashed with the image of Baby Bear slyly plucking a feather from the Zapdos. The Zapdos, enraged by the sudden attack, released a powerful burst of electricity, but Baby Bear, with its quick reflexes, activated its ability quick feet, swiftly dodging the lightning strike and escaping from the legendary Pokémon.
After their daring escape, Baby Bear and Mew wandered into a human city. As they strolled through the streets, they might have peeked through windows and seen children drawing in their rooms. Inspired by this, Mew and Baby Bear decided to express their adventure through drawing. They used crayons to sketch their encounter with Zapdos on paper, capturing the moment with their own unique touch.
Once the drawing was complete, they placed it along with the Zapdos feather in an envelope. They handed it over to a toucannon friend they met along the way, asking it to deliver the package back to the ranch. Naoki guessed that they didn't use the Pelipper from before because Baby Bear and Mew were still on their journey, not staying in one place for too long.
'What a fantastic discovery'! Naoki had been pondering how to find ingredients with electrical properties for cooking, and here Baby Bear had brought him the perfect solution—a feather from the legendary Zapdos. Of course, the assumption was that the Zapdos feather could be used for cooking.
But the real question was, how should he cook with this lightning bird feather? Frying, stir-frying, deep-frying, steaming, stewing, boiling—none of these methods seemed quite right. And even if he prepared it, would Dragonite and Pawmi be willing to eat a sharp feather like that? The most basic requirement for a good meal was that it should be appetizing, and this yellow, sharp feather looked more like something that would scratch your throat than a delicious dish.
Just as he was thinking about it, Dragonite, who had been napping on the grass, rubbed its eyes and sat up. Naoki approached with the feather and asked, "Do you want to eat this?"
Dragonite looked at the feather, clearly troubled.
"Ouch..." 'This seems inedible, right'? Even Dragonite, as goofy as it could be, knew what was food and what wasn't.
At the same time, after a busy day, Pawmi saw that it was getting dark and excitedly herded the hens back into the coop. After finishing, it ran towards Naoki. Hearing Naoki ask if it wanted to eat the feather, Pawmi stopped in its tracks, startled.
"Pawmi?!"
Pawmi looked at the feather, sensing an unusual aura from it. 'But... this thing doesn't seem edible, Right?' Pawmi was also unsure.
Seeing their reactions, Naoki sighed internally, "As expected."
If eating it directly wasn't an option, what if he ground it into a powder? Maybe that could work. After some thought, Naoki decided to give it a try.
However, he didn't have a crusher at home. Glancing at the sky, he saw there was still some daylight left, so he called Koraidon and rode to the town.
Naoki remembered that Kora had a crusher. When he and Koraidon arrived at Kora's house, she was in the middle of dinner. Seeing Naoki visiting at this time, Kora was surprised but then smiled, asking, "Are you planning to expand any more facilities?"
Naoki shook his head, smiling. "No, not this time."
He pulled out the Zapdos feather and said, "I was hoping to borrow your crusher to grind this feather. Is that okay?"
Kora, intrigued, stood up and led Naoki to her studio. She looked at the feather in Naoki's hand and asked, "Is that, a Pokémon feather?"
Naoki hummed and looked around. Kora's studio was not as tidy as he had imagined. Instead, it seemed a little messy.
Various tools and workbenches were piled together, wooden boards were leaning against the wall, and there was still sawdust on the table that had not been cleaned up yet.
"I just made a batch of wooden boards this afternoon and haven't had time to clean up, so it looks a little messy," Kora explained, a little embarrassed.
"It's okay," Naoki said, not caring much. His eyes were focused on the crusher.
Kora went forward to plug in the power supply, then pressed the button on the machine: "Okay, you can put it in."
Naoki nodded and carefully placed the feather inside.
With the humming sound of the machine, a small amount of yellow powder soon fell from the outlet.
Naoki carefully collected all the powder into a bottle.
As soon as his eyes met the powders, their information appeared in his mind.
[Zapdos Feather Powder: A legendary ingredient, a powder that contains a lot of electrical energy. It may be used to make dishes, the effect is unknown.]
Naoki was thrilled. Not only was it legendary in quality, but it was also his first time encountering an ingredient of such caliber.
"If I use this to make a dish, what kind of effect will it have?" Naoki couldn't wait to return home and try it out.
Seeing how much Naoki treasured the feather powder, Kora, who was standing beside him, was curious. "What kind of Pokémon's feather is this? It seems really special."
"Zapdos," Naoki replied.
"Zapdos?" Kora echoed, unfamiliar with the name.
"The legendary god of thunder, a Pokémon that can control lightning at will," Naoki explained.
It seemed that there was more than one Zapdos in the world, each varying in strength, but only one true God of Thunder—the Zapdos from the Lugia movie. Gathering Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno could even summon Lugia, the legendary Pokémon that controls ocean currents and storms.
"Although I've never heard of it, from what you said, it must be a very powerful Pokémon, right?" Kora murmured.
"Yes! After all, it is called a legend," Naoki nodded.
"But I'm curious, where did you get it?" Kora asked.
"Baby Bear gave it to me. You saw Teddiursa at the Spring Cattle and Sheep Competition last month."
Kora immediately recalled the Teddiursa that followed Naoki to the competition and apologized to the other ranchers and farmers.
"Its characteristic is picking up?" Kora asked.
"That's right," Naoki confirmed.
Kora was surprised. "It's so lucky, isn't it? It actually picked up a feather that fell off a legendary Pokémon."
Naoki grinned, "It's not just an ordinary Teddiursa! Well, it's getting late, I won't bother you anymore. See you later!"
"Goodbye," Kora said.
Naoki rode Koraidon back to the ranch with excitement. Without lingering in the town for long, he went straight to the kitchen area, looking down at the ingredients and kitchen utensils that had been prepared in front of him.
"So, what should I do with all this feather powder?" Naoki wondered. As he looked at the bag of flour in the corner of the kitchen, the answer came to him.
"Steamed buns!" he exclaimed.
He decided to add the legendary feather powder to the flour to make steamed buns.
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