บท 59: Leaf Blade
"Boom!"
The next morning, a loud clap of thunder jolted Naoki awake.
He opened his eyes, dazed for a few seconds, then abruptly sat up in bed. It was raining! Dense raindrops pelted the window, creating a rhythmic drumming sound. The sky outside was shrouded in a dark curtain of rain.
Several Pokémon in the room were also awakened by the thunder. They opened their eyes sleepily and looked around in confusion.
There was no need to water the plants on rainy days, so Naoki could afford to be a bit lazy. He lay back down and closed his eyes, intending to catch a few more minutes of sleep.
But then, he felt an insistent gaze fixed on him.
Opening his eyes, he saw Koraidon's large head peering over the bed, looking at him expectantly, its stomach rumbling.
Naoki sighed. "Alright, alright."
He reluctantly got dressed and out of bed.
On rainy days, the air inside the house was filled with dampness, making it quite uncomfortable. Before preparing breakfast, Naoki put on rubber boots and a raincoat, then went to the shed to fetch some firewood, placing it in the fireplace and lighting it.
As the indoor temperature rose, the moisture evaporated, restoring the room to its usual dryness.
Looking up at the old wooden house, Naoki muttered to himself, "Thankfully, it's not leaking."
Several Pokémon had woken up. Alcremie left the cupboard and joined Smoliv at the window, where they both watched the heavy rain outside.
Koraidon lay down on the wooden floor, patiently waiting for Naoki to cook.
Cyclizar went under the eaves, standing there and feeling the wind's breath.
Above its head, Butterfree stood on the wooden box, gently fluttering its wings and observing the rain.
Naoki took out the ingredients and started preparing breakfast, thinking to himself, "This house is almost several decades old."
The original owner's grandfather had always lived here. Back then, times were much simpler and less advanced, and ranchers primarily focused on raising livestock. So, there was nothing left on the property except for the wooden house and an abandoned Pokémon shelter.
As for why the cabin hadn't been expanded, perhaps the old man felt it was big enough for him to live alone, Naoki mused.
Taking a deep breath, Naoki considered his plans to expand the cabin.
Soon, breakfast was ready. Naoki brought it to the table, then took out a Poké Ball and released the soundly sleeping Dragonite.
Dragonite woke up, rubbed its eyes, and quickly noticed the rain outside.
This made Dragonite's eyes light up, and it quickly said to Naoki,
"Roar!" It's raining!
"I know." Naoki understood what Dragonite meant. "Let's eat first, and then we'll go up and take a look after we're done."
Dragonite immediately started eating breakfast quickly.
Naoki finished a bowl of porridge and said to Dragonite, "I need to feed the chickens. We'll try again after you come back from the milk delivery." Then, he grabbed a cucumber and headed out, munching on it as he walked towards the goat pen.
On rainy days, the Skiddo didn't want to venture out, so the three of them huddled together under the awning, watching the rain outside.
Seeing Naoki approach, they all looked up at once.
Naoki checked their feeding trough and saw that all the Green Grass Dumplings were gone.
Naoki: "..."
He had just filled it last night! These three Skiddo were quite the eaters.
Sighing silently, Naoki resigned himself to his fate and refilled the trough with dumplings. They were almost out, so he would have to make more in the afternoon.
One of the Skiddo let out a joyful bleat.
"Maa, maa, maa~"
"Did you learn a new move?" Naoki asked casually.
"Maa!"
One of the Skiddo nodded.
"Oh?" Naoki's curiosity was piqued. "What is it? Show me!"
The Skiddo began its demonstration. It looked serious, and Grass-type energy surged around its body, condensing into a sharp leaf blade. The Skiddo controlled the leaf blade, slashing forward like a sword.
This is.
"Leaf Blade?" Naoki raised an eyebrow.
"Maa~" The Skiddo looked very pleased.
Watching this, Naoki was inexplicably reminded of the Legendary Pokémon Zacian from the Galar region.
He suddenly asked, "Can you make the leaf bigger and hold it in your mouth to attack?"
"Maa?" The Skiddo looked confused, as if it didn't understand.
Naoki looked around, plucked a blade of grass from the ground, put it in his mouth, and showed it to the Skiddo.
Ding!
A metaphorical light bulb appeared above the Skiddo's head.
It used Grass-type energy to create another Leaf Blade, but this time, instead of attacking directly, it held the sword-like leaf horizontally in its mouth.
"Wow, that's cool!"
Naoki couldn't help but laugh. He hadn't expected his Skiddo to actually pull it off. Now it could go to the Galar region and cosplay as Zacian!
Holding the Leaf Blade in its mouth, the Skiddo turned its head left and right, then seemed pleasantly surprised to discover that it was easier to control the blade this way!
The other two Skiddo looked on with envy.
They wanted to do that too.
So, they turned around and started frantically eating Green Grass Dumplings.
"..." Naoki felt a bit overwhelmed by the scene.
He said goodbye to the Skiddo and went to the salt shelter, where he filled the Nacli's feeders with salty food and then played with them for a while.
After that, he headed to the chicken coop. As soon as he entered, he heard a chorus of cheerful chirping.
He looked down, and when he saw the scene on the haystack clearly, a surprised expression appeared on his face.
The eggs had hatched! In addition to the original three hens and one rooster, there were now six new little lives in the chicken coop.
Six fluffy chicks!
That was fantastic! Naoki had placed nine eggs in the coop last time, six of which had hatched, and three more were still incubating.
"Thanks for your hard work!"
To reward the diligent hens, Naoki filled their troughs with chicken feed and water, then took out tools to clean the coop's floor.
But at that moment, he noticed a row of inconspicuous footprints on the ground.
"Huh?"
He crouched down to examine them more closely.
The small, plum-shaped footprints led from the door to the feed trough, then back outside.
Was it an animal? Or a Pokémon? Several possibilities came to Naoki's mind.
He followed the trail of footprints outside, but the grass obscured them, and the rain had washed some away, making them disappear outside the coop.
He stood at the door and looked around. The chicken coop was built by the river and surrounded by a wooden fence. To enter, one would first need to pass through the fence.
But the gaps between the fence planks were very small, meaning the intruder wasn't large or was very agile, able to jump high.
After entering the chicken coop, it hadn't harmed the hens but had chosen to steal a handful of chicken feed without attracting the attention of other Pokémon. This suggested that the intruder was cautious and acted carefully.
What could it be?
...
"Since we have reached 800 powerstones, I will post 3 additional chapters tomorrow."
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