Chapter 15: The Unknown Girl
Time flew by, and a month later, most of the Fruit Trees Bai Feng had planted had survived. For the ones that didn't, he went back to Qingqing Planting Garden and bought some more to fill in the gaps.
During this month, both Talonflame and the Fletchinder, as well as the Diggersby family, adapted very well to their new home.
Talonflame usually patrolled the mountain with the Fletchinder, dominating the sky above Fangxing Mountain. Wild Pokémon that intruded were immediately driven out.
As the Fruit Trees gradually became lush and leafy, various Bug-type Pokémon were attracted, especially Scatterbug and Caterpie.
Talonflame and the Fletchinder have very strong eyesight. Once they spotted a Scatterbug or Caterpie on a Fruit Tree, they would swoop down, catch the bugs, and then throw them far away off the mountain.
Today, Bai Feng was wearing a black apron and holding a pair of scissors, pruning the branches and leaves of a Fruit Tree Sapling. Beside him, a Diggersby was also holding a much larger pair of scissors, mimicking his actions.
This Diggersby was the dad of the family of three.
After the Diggersbys' workload decreased. Their main job was helping with Top Dressing. But this job was simple and easily handled by the two efficient Diggersbys.
After finishing their work, the family of three became idle.
Watching the busy Talonflame and Fletchinder every day, the Diggersby family felt a strong contrast.
They felt that if they didn't work hard, their boss would soon think hiring them wasn't cost-effective and would directly dismiss them.
The family of three ate well and lived comfortably with Bai Feng every day, and occasionally even got a Rejuvenation. They were practically living like gods.
Where could they find such a good job? How could they let themselves be dismissed! So, they felt they had to find their value in the Orchard.
So, one day when Bai Feng was pruning the branches of a Sapling, the male Diggersby proactively offered to learn from him.
Bai Feng was stunned for a moment. Learn? Learn what?
After Diggersby Dad explained for a long time, Bai Feng finally understood. It wanted to learn how to take care of Fruit Trees.
Bai Feng initially thought that with Diggersby's large size, it probably couldn't handle delicate work.
However, he was wrong. Not only could Diggersby do it, but it did it exceptionally well.
There was a reason why Diggersby was able to care for an Oran Berry Tree on its own, resulting in abundant fruit, despite having no prior planting experience or knowledge.
It had some planting talent.
After this discovery, Bai Feng began to seriously teach Diggersby Dad.
Orchard management is complex, with many daily tasks, from fertilizer and water management, pest and disease prevention, to pruning, orchard cleaning, and so on. In the future, when the Fruit Trees flower and bear fruit, there will be multiple tasks like thinning flowers and fruits, and preserving flowers and fruits.
Diggersby Dad learned very seriously and worked skillfully, quickly becoming Bai Feng's important assistant.
With such a large Orchard area and so many Fruit Trees to manage, Diggersby Dad truly helped Bai Feng relieve a lot of pressure.
From then on, the Diggersby couple began to divide their work.
Diggersby Mom continued to be responsible for Top Dressing the Fruit Trees as usual, spending the rest of her time with Bunnelby loosening the soil and weeding for the Fruit Trees. Diggersby Dad followed Bai Feng to learn how to manage the Orchard and care for the Fruit Trees.
While Bai Feng and Diggersby Dad were pruning the branches of the Fruit Trees, strange singing sounds occasionally echoed from the depths of the Fruit Tree Forest.
This was Popplio singing.
Popplio was now no different from a normal Pokémon. In fact, because the quality and purity of the Origin Energy within its body were very high, the Moves it used were considerably stronger than those of ordinary Pokémon.
Popplio currently knew four Moves: Pound, Water Gun, Disarming Voice, and Perish Song. Perish Song was likely an Egg Move.
Through continuous practice and sparring, Popplio could now skillfully use the three Moves other than Perish Song.
Popplio's Ability was the rare Hidden Ability Liquid Voice, which converts its Sound-based Moves into Water-type.
Using this effect, Popplio developed a special use for Disarming Voice.
When Popplio sang, it would simultaneously activate its Liquid Voice Ability. At this point, Disarming Voice would transform into Water-type.
One day, while practicing this Move, a thought flashed in its mind, and it began to try using the vibration of its voice to control the Water-type Energy in the air, then converting the Water-type Energy into Water Mist.
Unexpectedly, it succeeded.
By spraying the Water Mist onto the Fruit Trees, it could achieve the purpose of watering. This was much faster than watering tree by tree with Water Gun, and there was no need to worry about losing control of the water volume and over-watering.
From then on, Popplio no longer used the Water Gun Move for watering the Fruit Trees but switched to Disarming Voice.
But how to put it, this little guy's vocal condition might not be very good. At this time, it should have been singing a beautiful song, but what actually came out was intermittent, chaotic squawking.
Bai Feng corrected it a few times, but the effect was minimal. Later, he played some famous songs for it, but it backfired. The originally melodious songs were sung by it into something unrecognizable.
"Woo woo woo~ woo woo woo~"
Although it didn't sound good, Popplio sang with great enthusiasm. This was probably a case of being bad but loving to play.
Seeing that it was getting late, Bai Feng handed the scissors in his hand to Diggersby Dad and said to it, "I need to go to Coupling Gym. I'll leave the Orchard here to you."
"Hoder!"
Diggersby Dad patted its chest and said, "Boss, don't worry!"
Bai Feng nodded, then shouted towards the depths of the Fruit Tree Forest, "Popplio, I'm leaving. Are you coming?"
"Woo~"
The singing in the Forest stopped abruptly. Soon, Popplio was seen running from a distance, then with a "woo," it pounced into Bai Feng's arms.
On the other side, Bai Ye was battling Talonflame on the mountaintop.
Without the help of the Fletchinder, Talonflame alone couldn't possibly defeat Bai Ye, but Bai Ye wasn't using its full strength. It was just honing its Moves, so Talonflame wasn't defeated immediately.
"You two stop for a moment. I need to go to Coupling Gym. Could Talonflame give me a ride?"
Hearing Bai Feng's call, the two Pokémon indeed stopped their actions.
Talonflame let out a call towards the distance, and the Fletchinder flew up from the Forest, flying opposite Bai Ye to continue sparring in place of Talonflame, while Talonflame itself landed in front of Bai Feng.
"Thank you for your hard work." Bai Feng patted Talonflame's head, then quickly climbed onto its back and ascended with Talonflame.
Soon, Bai Feng was above Coupling Gym. He looked down and seemed to see a person standing at the entrance of the Gym.
"Talonflame, go down." Bai Feng patted Talonflame's neck.
"Yaro~"
Talonflame nodded, then slowly descended carrying Bai Feng.
Only after landing did Bai Feng realize that the person standing at the Gym entrance was an unfamiliar girl.
The girl looked about twelve or thirteen years old, wearing a white short skirt and having short dark gray hair. She looked very youthful and beautiful.
As Bai Feng looked, he suddenly felt the girl looked a little familiar, but when he tried to recall carefully, he couldn't remember at all.
The girl also noticed Bai Feng. After Bai Feng got off Talonflame's back, she asked curiously, "Are you here to challenge the Gym too?"
Bai Feng was startled, then shook his head, "No, I'm here for something else."
"Oh, I see," the girl said softly, lowering her head, then looked up again and smiled, "I saw your Talonflame looks quite strong, so I thought you were also here to challenge the Gym."
Hearing this, before Bai Feng could speak, Popplio became unhappy. It squawked loudly at the girl, looking extremely displeased.
"What do you mean? Just because Talonflame is strong doesn't mean I'm not strong! Talonflame is just Bai Feng's employee, I'm Bai Feng's Starter Pokémon!"
"Alright, stop being jealous!" Understanding Popplio's meaning, Bai Feng couldn't help but laugh and quickly comforted it.
"Mogu clearly said this was a gentle and sensible Pokémon, so why did it change when it came to me?"
After spending this time together, Bai Feng had completely figured out Popplio's personality.
This was a fiery little pepper, wanting to fight people at the slightest disagreement. No wonder it beat up Captain Sanders's daughter back then.
"You're a Water-type Pokémon, not a Fire-type Pokémon!"
The girl looked at the stomping Popplio in astonishment, asking with a puzzled look, "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"
Bai Feng said helplessly, "Actually, Talonflame isn't my Pokémon. Popplio is. It just heard you praise Talonflame, so it's a little jealous."
The girl understood upon hearing this, then chuckled, "Your Popplio is really interesting. By the way, you can understand Pokémon so easily. I was right, you're a formidable Pokémon Trainer."
Bai Feng thought to himself: I might not even count as a proper Pokémon Trainer.
At this moment, he heard the girl say, "Oh, right, my name is Calyrex. What's yours?"
(End of Chapter)