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The next day.
The group went together to play at Furong Mountain.
Because they had come at the wrong season, climbing the mountain was out of the question; the area above the midway point was cold enough to freeze a person solid.
Therefore, after just playing around the base area for a while, they planned to go to Dachong Mountain to pay respects to the tower's master, Ho-Oh.
Yan Hu's family didn't come. After all, they had brought their daughter, so it wasn't convenient for them.
Duan Tianxing didn't come either; he seemed very interested in Yan Hu's daughter and had no desire to climb high for a view.
A true homebody.
Li Xiang suspected that if not for wanting to see the eldest martial uncle, Duan Tianxing wouldn't have even come to Sakura Island.
Ashibaka Shrine.
A place filled with the ancient culture of Japan.
Besides the classic red torii gates, there were also many cherry blossom trees—though, of course, they weren't in bloom.
Li Xiang made a point to walk around inside, then went to a secluded spot outside and used his camera to record the strange sculptures composed of multiple elements.
"Kangaskhan, Cubone, Tauros... all Gen I Pokémon," he mused, squinting. They were probably scrapped Pokémon designs; otherwise, he wouldn't feel like he'd seen them somewhere before.
Suddenly, he sensed a faint, almost imperceptible gaze.
Li Xiang turned his head and saw a tall, quadrupedal figure disappearing into the deep shadows of the forest, in a dark corner beyond clear sight.
'Arcanine?'
He initially wanted to go take a closer look, but was deterred by a sign outside that read "No Trespassing on the Grass. Violators Will Be Fined."
"Junior Brother, what are you doing?" Lu Chengfeng's voice came from behind. He was holding two crepes slathered with cream and jam. "Crepes. They're pretty good," he said, offering one.
Li Xiang took it, took a silent bite, and stared into the forest. "There might be a really huge Arcanine in there. I was considering whether to go in and catch it to pet its fur."
As a fur enthusiast, a Pokémon like Arcanine, which shed enough fur each year to weave a carpet, was practically legendary. Especially in winter. Good grief, that warm, soft fur—once you touched it, you wouldn't want to pull your hand back. Particularly the fur on its belly, which was like cotton.
Li Xiang had tried it many times on the Arcanine at the Conservation Base. If leaning his head in wasn't so creepy, he'd even have the urge to bury his face in it and inhale deeply.
"You... Junior Brother, only you would think of that," Lu Chengfeng said, unable to comprehend his passion for Pokémon. They were just Pokémon, found everywhere.
Li Xiang waved a hand. "Just kidding, just kidding. Let's go." The two then turned and left.
Deep in the forest.
Suicune stood behind a tree, watching the direction where Li Xiang and the other had left, faint mist swirling around it.
'He almost saw me. That child's sixth sense is getting sharper. It has been about a year and a half now, right? Nothing major has happened to Li Xiang since.'
Suicune lifted its head to look at the sky, feeling that after this Sakura Island trip, it could probably leave, just checking in occasionally. After all, Li Xiang was going to Mist City.
Thinking this, a cold, icy chill drifted from its smooth purple mane, concealing its body. The incarnation of the north wind vanished.
Elsewhere.
After playing at the foot of Furong Mountain all morning and having lunch, the group arrived at Dachong.
The most noteworthy place here was the Ho-Oh Temple, built in the distinctive Sakura Island style.
Li Xiang hadn't known what "distinctive style" meant until he saw the Ho-Oh Temple on the mountainside.
'Good grief. Isn't this the Bell Tower?'
It looked exactly like it did in the games. Especially the golden, long horn on top—it seemed perfectly replicated. Probably, if you brought a Rainbow Wing here, you could summon Ho-Oh.
He remembered a few years back, Lin Feng had discovered a giant tree in the backyard of the Xiangcheng Ho-Oh Temple that emitted a red light. The temple abbot caught him and gave him a large box of Pokéblocks as hush money.
Li Xiang was quite short on such Pokéblocks now, with so many new Pokémon. He ran to the backyard, hoping to try his luck. Maybe he could get a box of hush money too.
Result: He didn't even get through the door. Everything was locked up tight with sturdy, red-painted iron gates. The only thing open was the restroom.
"The gap between people is just so vast," Li Xiang grumbled indignantly, deciding it was better to acquire Pokéblocks through the Mist University channel.
Back in the main hall.
Under the strange looks of others, Li Xiang released Honedge, the Pokémon that had received Ho-Oh's blessing. With a shing, he directly drew the sword and performed a kneeling bow towards the stone statue of Ho-Oh.
Honedge, which had been sleeping, didn't react in time. Its body was shaken vigorously, nearly dizzying it. By the time it woke up and tried to figure out what was happening, it was all over. Li Xiang had already calmly sheathed it again.
'You—! Bullying me because I can't talk, right?!'
Honedge looked at Li Xiang's calm face, as if nothing had happened, and felt like unsheathing itself to slash him.
But before it could even partially unsheathe, Li Xiang sternly pushed it back in. He even pointed at the solemn surroundings with a "don't cause a scene" expression.
'...Definitely bullying me because I can't talk! Just you wait!'
Honedge immediately shut down, closing its eye and playing dead.
Li Xiang didn't mind. After a few days together, he understood Honedge well. There was nothing that reciting poetry couldn't solve. If one poem wasn't enough, he'd add another. If two weren't enough, he'd bring out The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber or The Return of the Condor Heroes. It always worked. Telling stories was a standard skill for transmigrators, after all.
He calmly tucked it into the bag on his back, leaving half the hilt exposed. Since it was out, no need to put it back. Getting some fresh air outside was good.
The secondary hall.
This was where the stone statues of the Legendary Beasts—Suicune, Entei, and Raikou—were placed. The artisans' skills were excellent; the three were carved with majestic and imposing forms.
Li Xiang's gaze swept over them. When he saw Suicune, he couldn't help but recall the figure that had helped him turn defeat into victory. Thinking back now, it was a bit like a deus ex machina. Without it, he wouldn't have had any cards left to play; he'd have been waiting for death.
"Thank you, Big Bro, for saving my life. I'll remember it forever," Li Xiang said sincerely, bowing three times to Suicune. Not knowing its gender was fine; calling it 'Big Bro' was sure to be correct. "If there's a chance in the future, let's communicate more," he murmured softly, his mind wandering to the thought that Suicune was probably quite pet-able given its size.
'Petting a Legendary Beast, tsk tsk tsk. I hope I get the chance.' Li Xiang swallowed.
At the tower's peak.
A certain large wolf-like beast was laughing and crying at the same time. 'What kind of address is that—'Big Bro'? I'm old enough to be your ancestor! This kid really is occasionally so unreliable.'
After paying respects, Li Xiang spent money on an ema votive plaque, wrote a wish for his parents' health, and then went to draw an omikuji (fortune slip).
—Great Blessing (Daikichi).
"Good luck," he whistled. The slip could be taken away, said to act as a protective charm.
"Ah, why did I get Great Curse (Daikyo)?" Lu Chengfeng complained loudly.
Wang Dong, who had drawn a Small Blessing (Shokichi), snickered beside him. "Told you you're unlucky."
'They actually have curse slips here?'
Li Xiang looked over curiously. He thought such places only had blessings. He hadn't expected them to be so straightforward, even having curse slips.
"Young man, if you draw a curse slip, you can tie it over there to turn misfortune into blessing," a bald worshipper explained kindly to the frowning Lu Chengfeng. "It's a custom here."
The place he pointed to was a wall covered densely with white fortune slips, so many that the original color of the wall was invisible.
'Whoa, how many curse slips did you put in there?'
Li Xiang was stunned. This Ho-Oh Temple was something else.
Hearing this, Lu Chengfeng was overjoyed and hurried over to tie his curse slip.
'Didn't expect Fifth Senior Brother to be so superstitious... Fourth Senior Brother, you got a curse slip too?' Li Xiang watched Duan Yu silently step forward and tie his slip without a word, thinking, 'What kind of luck is this?'
Fortunately, the three senior sisters all had good luck. All drew Middle Blessing (Chukichi), as if they had agreed on it.
Out of the seven junior siblings, only Li Xiang had drawn a Great Blessing, which was quite rare.
"Good fortune has come," Li Xiang said, buying a small scented sachet and hanging it around his neck next to the iron ring. He called others superstitious, but he was quite superstitious himself.
.....
With the group's activities in Nai City, the Sakura Island trip gradually drew to a close.
During this time, Li Xiang had asked Yan Hu if he knew any real ninjas. Yan Hu said modern ninjas were basically in seclusion, hiding even deeper than the old Triple Village, and couldn't be encountered out in the world.
Left with no choice, Li Xiang asked him to inquire with people at the dojo if there were any ninja training manuals on the market, real or fake, and to bring them all for him to look at.
The efficiency was high. That very evening, Yan Hu brought over quite a few items.
Unfortunately, they were mostly comics, magazines, movies, and, ahem, unspeakable DVDs. The only few items that looked somewhat legitimate contained nothing that would be of any help to Greninja.
'Can't even find ninja manuals in the place where ninjas originated.' Li Xiang could only regretfully tell Greninja to give up on that idea.
Greninja was very disappointed. As a fallback, it started learning swordsmanship, or rather, the art of the blade.
"Niten Ichiryū (Two Heavens as One)? You want to learn this?" Li Xiang looked surprised at the comic Greninja pushed towards him. It depicted a two-dimensional character wielding two swords.
"Ninja!" Greninja nodded, quite excited, and demonstrated Night Slash. Two dark blades of light appeared in its hands, one long and one short, looking exactly like the two-sword style.
It seemed to have gotten inspiration from Slowbro and developed an interest in sword techniques.
"You..." Li Xiang looked at the comic, then at Greninja. "To increase your ability in frontal combat?"
Greninja nodded.
Its biggest weakness was its inability to fight head-on. After all, what it excelled at was using various status moves to mislead opponents. The frontal assault style seen in the anime, where Ash-Greninja just charges in and goes all out—a 'you die or I die' approach—wasn't something Greninja could pull off. It relied too much on its camouflage.
Therefore, Greninja decided to learn the two-sword style to enhance its frontal combat capabilities.
"...Alright then," Li Xiang nodded. Regardless of the final outcome, trying it out certainly couldn't hurt.